What Next for Obama's Text-Messaging Database?, Washington Post. 

Still, alongside YouTube and Facebook, texting is one of the big X factors of this presidential campaign. Sen. John McCain doesn't have a text program, though the National College Republican Committee, which is campaigning for him, is experimenting with texting at various schools.

Salesforce.com Wants to Host Your Web Site, Wall Street Journal

This isn’t your run of the mill Web-site support, however. The goal is to bridge the divide that exists in many businesses between Web operations and internal information technology, says Francis. Not only are the two often run by different groups, but more importantly data doesn’t always move freely between the Web site and a business’s systems.

Briefing 2.0: Breaking Through 20th Century Walls, DIPNote.

Projecting forward, I suspect future administrations will build on our efforts. Of course, it will be up to them whether to eliminate, modify, or leave the same what we are doing. You will also have a say as to how the relationship develops. But I further suspect that the changes we have set in motion, which are as much about what you see as they are about changes in State Department processes, will only accelerate in the years ahead.

"Brilliant. Effective. Revolutionary."

Those are the three words I thought I'd write in response to Barack Obama's text message announcing his Vice Presidential pick. Instead, the only word that comes to mind is "Disappointing."

Let me explain...

Having upgraded recently from a BlackBerry to a white 3G iPhone I went ahead and signed up on my new line for the updates. More text messages? No worries, I had already opted for the unlimited text plan so that I could better follow about a dozen or so folks on Twitter without having to track mileage.

I ripped off the text like a pro -- tapping "VP" to 62262 and clicking send. Within seconds I received a response back from 62262 letting me know that the sign-up was a success.

Noting in my little black book of best practices that even the confirmation note had a call to action ("Please forward"), I cracked a smile in recognition of the genius of Obama online guru Joe Rospars and his team.

I thought, could the be the text that's heard around the world as it got forwarded from an initial few to many? What would the text say?

I was pumped and excited for the text. And I'm a Republican who will not vote for Barack Obama regardless of his running mate.

The promise of direct, exclusive information sent to my iPhone was a heckuva carrot to put out on a stick. Not just for me -- but for others too. In fact, last week when I was training 60 field representatives for the College Republicans (a client) I asked the room who else had signed up -- at least a quarter of the hands slowly grabbed the sky.

Days went by last week since I had signed up. I hadn't received a single text from Barack. Was this thing still working? Indeed, a Tweet would pop up reminding me that the foot was still on the pedal. I even thought it was genius that Barack's team had not sent a text to me. I had signed up for one text, at least initially -- don't break the promise or risk losing me.

So... I... Waited... For... Barack...

After a long week at work, I decided to forget about it for the night. I went out with friends, had sushi, saki, and laughs. I went to bed.

When I woke up this morning, I grabbed my iPhone to start reading through late night tweets, text messages, and emails. OMG. WTH is that? a text message from Barack at 3:04 AM? No way...

Confirmed. It was indeed from Obama's campaign -- but it wasn't from Barack -- the person. The text was from Barack Obama -- the Machine.

Using 148 of their 160-character limit the Machine wrote:

Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee. Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3 PM ET on www.BarackObama.com. Spread the word!

What were they thinking by not using Barack's voice? Didn't they realize that I'm used to getting very real, personal text messages from my friends? Didn't they know that even I thought that Barack really "got" this modern medium?

Patrick Ruffini blogged this morning that Barack's text wasn't even really worth the wait because it had leaked to the media beforehand. To quote Patrick, "What seemed like a brilliant exercise in media management devolved into a late night rearguard maneuver." Agreed.

So, if I were working for Barack, I would have suggested the following 160-character text (Leave no character behind!):

Senator Joe Biden is my VP pick. Visit www.BarackObama.com now to see a video message from us to you. You are an important part of the Team for Change. Plz fwd!

But... They didn't. Barack didn't text me anything. The Machine did.

I'm disappointed in Barack's team for missing this opportunity to communicate a direct, personal message from Barack and Joe to their people.

So points for using text messaging as a medium to communicate; however, they're just not doing a good job of using it effectively.

Tagga may be a great resource for your GOP state party or campaign.  Tagga, a Canadian company based out of Vancouver (home of flickr), appears to be a great little tool with a lot of potential.  Tagga enables you to establish text messaging accounts for free and you can create a personalized code.  I just set up an account for the Massachusetts Republican Party and you can now text MassGOP to 82442 to join massGOPmobie.  I will also set up a RSS feed to our blog, MassRoots, where people can get updates from the blog on the go.

You can send up to 80 characters to your subscribers for free, paying $0.20 a text will give you 120 characters per message.

Soon, you will be able to create polls where people can vote from their phones and newsletters where you an create text message newsletters.  Granted, with Twitter you can update volunteers on their phones but this is a nice tool with a specific niche that people can understand immediately, there seems to be a learning curve with twitter and "tweets."  

I hope to roll out the new MassGOP.com in a few days and this will be a nice addition to the site, I'm glad I found it.  Speaking of which, I'm using the new and improved websat created by Cyrus at the RNC for the new MassGOP.com and it's been a great system - if you're with a state party, I highly recommend it.

UPDATE: Verizon has reversed their decision and will allow NARAL to carry out their campaign.

Thanks to NARAL, we now know that texting isn't considered free speech. While I'm not sad to see a pro-choice group take a few knocks, this has repercussions for everyone.

The US is far behind Europe with our cell phone technology, so SMS or texting has yet to make the impact that it has across the pond. As more political parties and advocacy groups use newer communication technologies to carry controversial messages, we're reminded how much our laws need to catch up with technology.

The Times article points out that texting falls under the Net Neutrality debate that was highlighted here a few weeks ago with the conservative argument for and against it. Yet this Verizon decision takes the issue from a blogosphere debate to a real problem that campaigns face. What happens when you create a great texting plan and one of the largest US carriers refuses to accept it?

Do Republicans support First Amendment protection expanding to all technologies or do they fight government intrusion and hope that competition counters these types of policies?

[Cross posted at Girl from the South]

Crossposted from RedStormPAC blog.

Julie at the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet blog shares Kevin Betram's Top Ten Lessons for running a mobile campaign for political candidates:

1. A dedicated short code is imperative. You don’t want your supporters to accidentally receive messages from companies who might be assigned the same shortcode. Splurge on the extra cost ($1,000 vs. $500) for your own shortcode.
2. Timelines and relevance are key. When the Obama campaign used text messaging to remind its supporters about a debate at Howard University, some of the recipients told the campaign that even though they attended Howard, they didn’t know that there was debate.
3. People like to feel empowered, so use mobile technology in a way that allows them to talk back to you and take action. One example Kevin cited was asking your volunteers to text you about their experiences canvassing.
4. People like free stuff, like ring tones, bumper stickers, and wallpaper. And when you ask them where to send their loot – like bumper stickers – you can collect their mailing addresses as well.
5. Segment your lists by zipcode/area code, events, and issues. People should only receive text messages about events in their area and issues they care about.
6. Stay away from complicated.
7. Tests your assumptions. Sometimes what you believe about mobile technology, such as the myth that only young people use text messaging, is proven inaccurate.
8. Dedicated customer service is important. Make sure work with a company that has a dedicated staff ready and able to answer your supporters’ questions.
9. Knowing and following the Mobile Marketing Association’s rules is imperative. Check out the MMA website.
10. Don’t ask for money. Early gratification equals retention, and mobile is still a tricky medium when it comes to fundraising.

Kevin Betram's Distributive Networks runs the mobile operations for the Barack Obama campaign.  Currently mobile campaigning has only been heavily harnessed by four Democratic candidates while the Republicans are still trying to figure out the best approach.  Mobile campaigning is all about interacting with the volunteer and providing incentives for motivation, and the cost of a text message compared to any number of other methods is remarkably low.