PelosiRoll’d

January 15, 2009 ~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

To celebrate the launch of the Congressional YouTube channels, Nancy Pelosi Rickroll’d Your Nation’s Capital this week. Here’s the video that has Washington talking:

You may not be able to see it by the time this post is up – YouTube has been cracking down on the use of copyrighted music, and it has already been removed once from Pelosi’s official YouTube channel. But it doesn’t matter. The video – which started with a couple of cats frolicking in the Capitol before launching into Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” – has already made a media splash.

Aside from being funny and a good media hook, it shows the Speaker’s office understands the folks who use modern media – Rickrolling is an older prank, but new enough to be relevant (it’s no Dancing Jesus) and wholly unexpected from a federal officeholder. Kudos to Pelosi for running with what was probably the suggestion of a younger staffer.

That said, it’s telling that the Democrats in Congress are harnessing the awesome power of online video to bring us images of kittens and Rick Astley.

From the folks deciding who gets bailout money…

January 12, 2009 ~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

YouTube is trying to encourage Congress to use its service by launching pages that aggregate channels from Representatives and Senators.

You read that right: a free video service has to find ways to encourage people to use its product – people who, every 2-6 years, spend hundreds of thousands (and at times millions) to buy time on television stations.

Writing your Congressman in 2009

December 16, 2008 ~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

Some light reading for the previous evening: the Congressional Management Foundation’s study on Communicating with Congress. I didn’t get through it all but started with the parts for grassroots organizers – that’s the part that directly applies to my day job.

Lots of discussion about communicating with Congress online deals with opportunities; the CMF deals with realities. For instance, email to Capitol Hill is so routine that it has lost almost all effect. If you’re a constituent hoping to make an impact, it’s better to put pen to paper than finger to keyboard; yet citizens are eager to communicate with their elected leaders online because, well, citizens communicate with everyone else online, as well.

It presents daunting challenges for Capitol Hill. A well-funded grassroots campaign can generate calls or letters; an organic movement is more likely to be online. The study offers some solutions, but 535 offices will have to come up with answers of their own.