PTP Blog

I recently heard a comment from Roberto in New Mexico about the low quality of the telephone numbers in a voter file from a nationally known data provder.  One of the causes may be the demise of land line phones.

The Center for Disease Control  published a report on the issue this month. It turns out that (in their words) “In the last 6 months of 2007, nearly one out of every six households (15.8%) did not have a landline telephone, but did have at least one wireless telephone”.  This was around 5% in the first half of 2004. People without landlines tend to be poorer, younger and renting. The future?  More cell phones and less reliable lists from data providers.
 

 Read the whole thing at
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/wireless200805.pdf

Source: Blumberg SJ, Luke JV. Wireless substitution: Early release of estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, July-December 2007. National Center for Health Statistics. Available from:

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis.htm. May 13, 2008.

On May 1, 2008, PTP wrapped up our first Voter Tech Training where community organizers from 24 organizations across the country gathered to learn state of the art technology tools and techniques for integrating voter and base-building organizing databases.

Many organizers are wrestling with understanding the relationship between the data cycles of voter engagement and base-building organizing. The Voter Tech Training group tackled this head on, and created what is possibly the most fully articulated description of various voter engagement activities and their related data needs. Members of PTP’s Power on Network can access that document at the Power on Network website http://network.progressivetech.org. If you’re not a member of the Network, click here to request membership.

Data models weren’t the only topic of conversation at the Voter Tech Training. Organizers also learned the nuts and bolts of cleaning, de-duplicating, and merging lists, and had the opportunity for some hands-on training with the Voter Activation Network online voter file interface.

Given the overwhelmingly positive feedback we’ve received, we’re planning to offer the Voter Tech Training again in August right before the heavy voter contact operations kick off. To get updates about the next Voter Tech Training leave a note in the comments here.

We’ve been looking at the grassroots community led social justice organization movement lately. As part of this we decided to see who PTP has reached over the years. It’s interesting primarily because it shows how widespread the movement is. Here’s a map from our web site:

Mark this event on your calendar! Paul Getsos, co-author of Tools for Radical Democracy: How to Organize for Power in your Community, will do a book reading on Wednesday April 2^nd 2008 – 7:00pm, Magers & Quinn Bookstore (3038 Hennepin Avenue S., Minneapolis).

Tools for Radical Democracy is an essential resource for grassroots organizers and leaders, students of activism and advocacy, and anyone trying to increase the civic participation of ordinary people. This reading will be an interactive session of Paul Getsos reading passages from the book and tackling various questions from you.

In Tools for Radical Democracy, Getsos and co-author Minieri share stories and tools from their nationally recognized and award-winning work of building a community-led organization, training community leaders, and conducting campaigns that changed public policy and delivered concrete results to tens of thousands of people.  The book contains keen insights for using technology effectively, building more powerful alliances, and engaging in the social justice movement.  

This is a not to be missed book reading for those interested in building power to create change. Please forward this to your friends and other interested constituencies! For more information email kwame@progressivetech.org

What they say about Tools for Radical Democracy

“This manual is an organizer’s organizer. I hope many people will put this to use.”
—Heather Booth, founder and president, Midwest Academy

“This book is ‘the secret’ for building collective power for long-term social change.”
—Nat Chioke Williams, Executive Director, Hill-Snowdon Foundation

“Minieri and Getsos provide real-world examples of how ordinary people can become leaders who effect positive change. This book will be required reading for our staff and recommended reading for all our members.”
—Janet S. Keating, Co-Director, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition

“Students, scholars, and social activists alike will find something to their tastes in this how-to guide for rebuilding democracy from the ground up.”
—Joaquin Herranz Jr., Assistant Professor, Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington

Are you trying to get your membership database to talk to your voter canvass data? Are you interested in attending PTP’s Voter Tech Training but don’t have the funds? Do you need some help from political or technology consultants to move your electoral engagement planning forward?

If you answered “YES” to one or more of these questions, you might be interested in a new grant program that PTP just opened:

The Progressive Technology Project is announcing the VOTER Project, a new initiative that builds on its new Voter TechKit. In the Voter Organizing Technology Education and Resources Project (VOTER Project) PTP will work with community-led organizations to greatly increase their long-term capacity to conduct effective integrated voter engagement activities.

PTP will work with a select group of 501 C3 community organizing groups that are engaged in voter education and get-out-the-vote projects in 2008. This program is designed to develop, support and document efforts to integrate the organization’s voter engagement work with its on-going programmatic work.

Details and application information are here.

Organizer and author Paul Getsos, (co-author of “Tools for Radical Democracy” and former director of Community Voices Heard)  will help us kick off the Databases, and Technology Assessment and Planning Training, April 2-4 in Minneapolis, MN.

Paul’s joining us to share his experience and perspective on how and why technology, and in particular databases are a critical tool for building power.  As he and Joan Minieri wrote:

Organizing is ultimately about building and managing mass numbers of relationships.  A database offers the most effective way to track and manage relationships.

With a well-organized and well-managed database, you keep track of everyone who comes into contact with the organization. . . . Of all the technologies available for large-scale base-building, mobilizing, and leadership development, an easy-to-use database is the one technology that most effectively builds the power of an organization.

There are still a few more places available in the Database Training, so if you’re interested, click here to register.

Also, if you’re thinking about registering for our Voter Tech Training, and your organization doesn’t have a solid data system “footing,” you should really think about attending both April 2-4 Database training, as well as the Voter Tech Training.

I picked up this article by Eugene Eric Kim via Jon Stahl’s blog.

In it, Eugene writes about a training experience in which he clearly sees the impact of differences in technology understanding - what he calls the technology understanding gap:

The following day, I co-led a session on this topic with AngusParker. Two of the participants were dealing with the specific challenge of connecting members of a national network of leaders in reproductive health, so we used that as a case study. We decided to use Clay’s contention to frame the problem, resulting in this whiteboard:

What do you notice about this picture? Obviously, the Tools column is completely empty. That’s a dead giveaway that I’m facilitating this discussion. (That and the horrific handwriting.) Figure out the basics first. Don’t let the question about technology drive the discussion. During the discussion, one of the participants asked, “What tools can we use?” I responded, “Let’s not worry about that now.” So we kept talking and talking, and I noticed the two non-technical participants in the group squirming like crazy. So I stopped, noticed how gaping the Tools column looked, and said, “You’re uncomfortable about not having discussed the tools, aren’t you.” She nodded. “Don’t worry about it,” I responded. “The tools part will be easy, once we figure everything else out.” “Easy for you, maybe,” she said. “You already know what goes there.” That was not quite true, but I got her point, and the force of it struck me so hard, I had to stop for a moment. I looked at the gap, and I saw possibilities. She looked at the gap, and she saw a void. That was upsetting for her. It made it hard for her to think about the other aspects of the problem. It made me realize how much I take my technology literacy for granted. But it also created an opportunity to discuss how easily we are sidetracked by technology. “Tool” does not have to mean software, and making that assumption prevents us from exploring other viable, possibly better solutions.

Jon follows up with this observation:

often, people who are less technically literate think that if they only fill in the right answer in that middle “Tools” column, that their problems will all be solved. When, really, it is more important to get the Promise and the Bargain right. I like to call this pattern “magical tool thinking.” It results in a lot of wasted time and effort trying to identify that magical, right tool — effort which should go into thinking about process, objectives and how to sustain the non-technological parts of the organizing effort.

I couldn’t agree more - with both of them. In fact, it is this “Technology Understanding Gap” and the its impacts that Jon notes that we address with our Community Organizing and Technology Institute.

Our goal with COaTI - and really all of our programs - is to help organizers understand what’s possible with technology so that organizers can put the “tools” in their proper context and focus on the goals and strategy that should drive any technology’s use.

We realize that many organizers are not too excited about going to technology training. Probably because you think it’s going to be dull and impossible to understand.  Or maybe that the thought of spending days with geeks is more than you can bear.

That’s not what happens at a PTP training. We have fun. You’ll have fun — and you’ll learn a lot. What you learn will change your organization. It may even change your life!

Here’s what organizers tell us:

“We want to thank you all for the technical support and training and just your supportive solidarity as we have gone through two major enhancements of our technological capacity.”

“Thank you for a wonderful week of learning. You were all fabulous teachers, full of respect, patience, excitement and a dedication to social change and community organizing”

“please forgive for taking so long to send thanks […]. I got so much individual help as well as nicely paced group help for my computer needs.”

There’s just over a week before registration closes for PTP’s Community Organizing, Database and Planning COaTI and Scholarships are still available – see our scholarship info here.

What’s a COaTI?  COaTI (co-AH-tea)  – our Community Organizing and Technology Institute is PTP’s main training program, designed to increase your organization’s ability to use technology more effectively in your work. 

The first COaTI covers Databases, and Technology Assessment and Planning.  If you’re new to using a database to support your organizing work, or are interested in learning more about what’s possible with databases and how they integrate into your organizing work, this is the training for you.  Because database work can also lead to a desire for improved data or technology, we’re building in a Technology Assessment and Planning component to this COaTI as well.  You can view a sample agenda and get more information here.

The database COaTI kicks off our 2008 training season, but it isn’t the only training you can register for – go to www.progressivetech.org to learn about our Voter Tech Training, TechCamp, and Communications COaTI.  

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with any questions you have.  If you’re not sure about getting a scholarship, go ahead and register anyway – if it turns out you don’t receive a scholarship, cancelling your registration is easy.

Registration for the Community Organizing Database and Planning COaTI closes February 29^th.  Register today at http://www.progressivetech.org/Program/Training/course_application.htm

Only 14 more days to sign-up for PTP’s Training on Databases and Technology Assessment and Planning taking place April 2-4, 2008 in Minneapolis, MN

If your organization is looking to improve its database, this is the program to dig in and find out what PTP has learned from the best practices in the field.

Our Database, Assessment, and Planning COaTI (Community Organizing and Technology Institute) is designed for organizers who want to build up their database skills, develop a better understanding of what databases can and can’t do, and deepen their understanding of how a specific technology fits into a broader vision for your organization and its technology use.  This COaTI features a combination of large group, small group, and hands-on work. While we will provide computers for the training, participants are encouraged to bring a laptop and a copy of your organization’s database.

Registration closes in 14 days.  Click here to get more information and to register. Some scholarships available.

http://www.progresssivetech.org

Here’s the story.  A colleague posted a note on Twitter about an organization that got a really low response rate when they sent out a subscribe request to people who had done a paper sign-up for their announcement email list.  Their webhost requires that list recipients opt-in via email, and so the organization sent their subscribe request to 586 people and 94 chose to opt-in to the list for the second time.  My colleague was disheartened for obvious reasons – a 16% (did I do my math right?) response rate, while not bad, isn’t really something to shout from the rooftops either.  I started to respond via twitter, but decided to move from the twitter-verse to the broader internets because I think there’s something here that’s worth unpacking.

First, some assumptions I make when it comes to communications – these are based my experiences working with community organizing groups, and while somewhat critical, are said with love:

• most people don’t read
• there is a strong tendency in community organizing groups toward verbosity
• additionally, groups tend to under-analyze their audience
  • the clearest manifestation of this is evidenced by a difficulty in articulating the value of a particular communication to the recipient not the organization

Now, I’m not suggesting that the second and third assumptions are at work in this case.  Still, in the case of this organization, they can view their responses as 492 people who don’t see any value in their communications and feel bad.  Or they can see that they have 94 people (almost 100!) who do see value in receiving their updates and use that as their base to build on.

Fundamentally, it comes down to goals – at PTP, we call this the BIG WHY.  Why does the organization want an email announcement list?  What do those goals suggest about what they send via the list and who they target with it?  Maybe a survey of the 94 is in order to see how those folks would like the organization to improve their communication so it better meets the needs of the people that want to hear from them.  And for the 492 that don’t want email, what about blast faxing them with the urgent/one-page flyers as necessary?  I suspect that a combination of approaches would accomplish the organization’s goals while at the same time making their different audiences much happier with the communication they are receiving.

Finally, I think is a great reminder that no matter what we’re doing and who we’re communicating with, it is really unlikely that a significant portion of any list is going to opt-in to receive more email.  As email has become more and more spam filled and overused, many people just aren’t going to agree to yet one more message in their inbox.  It demands that groups look to other mechanisms for contact including blogs, RSS feeds, and text messages while also reexamining older technologies like faxing, paper mail, and phone trees.  It also demands that groups answer the BIG WHY and use that answer to target their efforts.  In the end, while these approaches may take more work at the front end, if more people hear and act on your messages, it’s a clear win.