No Free Internet Campaigns
The problem with current internet campaigns is that they are niche markets at the moment. Older generation politicians realize the need for a website, but they are clueless about the internet.
Enter the hustlers.
Like sharks in the water, some companies approach candidates and offer their services for free. But what does that mean?
Free means:
1) Upgrades cost you serious money, as vendors get the check they should have gotten at the start. This includes the inability to customize your website or post media files (a key component of any campaign website).
2) The website is housed on their servers. So if you want to move to a different company, you have to recreate the site from scratch. And chances are, the original "free" vendor already has your campaign domain name.
3) You could have ads on your campaign web site! Gasp! Ads on your website not only make you look like an amateur candidate, but they are annoying to potential visitors and voters.
And the clincher is:
4) Vendors control your data. All those volunteers on your website? All those people who donated to your campaign? The vendor can sell your information to many sources, even to your own opponent! That blows my mind!
There is no such thing as a free lunch, or a campaign website for that matter.
From Choosing an Online Fundraising System (10)
3 Comments:
Wow. I hadn't ever thought about it in those terms, but I can imagine how that might be going on all over the place. Sharks indeed.
There is usually a lot of youth associated with political campaigns. Without the experience or stature that allows a good staff to avoid such terrible decisions, especially if the candidate is disengaged, it's like loosing a hobbled wildebeest onto the Serengeti.
Your post was really interesting today (as usual) but I have a couple of questions.
Your forth point, about the venders being able to sell the content that you give them to create your website, what are some of the particulars?
What I mean is, is there a statute of limitation on that at all? Do they have to wait 10 years, 10 months, 10days??? Can they sell your information right in the middle of a campaign?!
And finally, are there any articles about campaigns that you’ve heard have had this happen to them?
That blows my mind that some can be so underhanded… They must have skipped out of the wonderful world of ethics with Anderson!
I wish that chapter 10 had gone into more detail about those issues also. I am unaware of any statute of limitations on a time period for selling the information. It's probably included in legalese in the contract - and the authors point out the need for your campaign attorney to go over the contract in depth.
I, too, would love to know what candidates had their information sold to their opponent, but the chapter didn't elaborate on that point.
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