During the campaign, Obama relied on technology to supplement his traditional media outreach.  He used the web to make the case directly to voters why is he was the best choice for President.  Whether you agree with his policies, the approach was a successful one.  As president, I had hoped that he would continue this approach while governing. However after the election,  some of the outreach efforts slowed down.  As some bloggers have pointed out, there had not been any action on his twitter page in 10 days.  When I saw his first weekly address yesterday, I was delighted.  I’m glad to see that he will continue his approach of talking to directly to the people.

I can’t vote today (for many reasons I’ve cited here before) but I’m asking you to. 

As it was written in the Economist several days ago, "it is impossible to forecast how important any presidency will be" nor can we predict how good of a president any politician will be.  In fact history has shown us that some of our finest presidents were mere novices in the political arena, or so we thought, while some of our worst presidents were seasoned professionals.  So In effect, no matter who we vote for today, we are all taking a gamble.

Recognizing that there is not much we can do about that aspect of elections, I urge you not to think of this election, or any other election, in that prism.  Instead, I propose that we think of this election, and all elections, as a responsibility and an opportunity. 

It is our responsibility to hold elected officials accountable, to hold the torch that was passed onto us by previous generations dating back to our fore-fathers, to tell the world that democracy is alive and well and is indeed the best form of government. 

This election is also an opportunity.  For some, it is the opportunity to correct the mistake from 4 or 8 year ago.  For others, it is the opportunity to re-affirm their beliefs from the same period.  For many, it is the opportunity to participate in the democratic process for the first time.  But for all, it is an opportunity to be heard; an opportunity to take this country in a different direction; an opportunity to make history regardless of ideology or background.

So today, I am asking you to vote.

I am asking you to vote for me and many others like me who won’t have the opportunity to be heard.

I am asking you to vote for our men and women in the armed forces serving abroad that won’t be able to vote because of archaic absentee ballot laws.

I am asking you to vote so that we can put people in office with the moral courage to deal with challenges facing our nation today at the national and local level.

I am asking you to vote so our generation may be heard.

Most of all I am asking you to vote because your vote, your voice, matters.

Some will dismiss my call to action as a gimmick to get people to vote for Senator Obama.  It is true that I support Senator Obama.  I do so for many reasons that others have penned more eloquently than I ever will.  And it is indeed my fervent hope that you do cast your ballot for the junior senator from Illinois.  However, this is not to say that Senator McCain will not make a good president.  In fact, I believe that he will be an adequate president or even a fine president.  Very few of us have served this country like he has over the decades.  Though I question his vice-presidential pick, I believe that he will take that same dedication and love for our country to the white house.  I did not write this to endorse any candidate running on any level, but simply to ask you to vote.

So I will ask again, please go vote.

The late Robert Francis Kennedy reminded us that "few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation." Today, your small portion is to go vote.

[picture by joecrimmings]

In this video (taped yesterday) I share some good news and some bad news.  Bad News - I got laid off yesterday,  Good News - I’m closer to becoming a U.S. Citizen.

As I said in the video, I’m looking for a job so if you know of anyone hiring please pass along my resume.  Thank you.  As always, comments/suggestions about the video are welcome.

Sometime last week, Lindy Dreyer of SocialFish  wrote a very interesting post about what should be in your association social media plan.  I agree with everything Lindy wrote in her post.  However,  I felt that one item was missing from her social media plan.  I believe that before jumping on the social media bandwagon, an organization should first determine that there would be some benefit in doing so.  I inquired about this missing item to Lindy via comment.  My inquiry inspired a subsequent post from her.

First, I am flattered that my comment would inspired Lindy to follow up blog post.   I’m blushing… can you tell?   In her follow up post, Lindy makes the argument that every organization should invest in social media.  She argues that they may not necessarily want to break the bank on social media outreach but every organization should at least invest some time into social media.

While I’m flattered about inspiring a blog post, I remain skeptical that every organization should invest in social media.  I contend that while an organization may not foresee all the benefits of jumping on the social media bandwagon, the organization should at least insure that there is something tangible to be gained by investing their time into social media.  For example, National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) is an organization focused on serving local health officials. At this point their membership consists of the vast majority, if not all, of the local health officials around the country.  Their funding comes from the CDC and their programs are geared towards their current membership. To continue to be successful, an organization like NACCHO has to continue serving its members  by answering to identified needs/wishes.  If their membership has not identified social media as need or has not identified problems that could be solved using social media, it would be a waste of time and resources for the organization to invest in social media.

On the other hand, an organization like Be The Change, Inc.  whose core mission is “building a broad-based, web-fueled, citizens’ movement that will campaign for better public policies, promote active citizenship and citizen democracy” has no choice but to jump on social media band wagon.  To be successful on the web, the BTC has to follow current trends and eventually become one of the leaders when it comes to social media outreach.

To re-iterate my point, Lindy is right that your organization should have a social media plan and if you don’t have one, hire her to help you come up with one (Lindy, I want 10% referral fee…joking).  However before you that, your organization should first establish that it fits within its mission and it stands to gain something by jump on the bandwagon.  Once you jump on, it’s really hard to get off.

I missed Mid-week reads last week. I’m sure I had a good reason but it’s currently escaping me.  Please accept my apoloiges.  Since I missed last week,  I will include a bonus article for your reading pleasure.  I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did.

Seriously…drop what you are doing and watch this… - I’m not a fan of this type of title for blog posts.  Usually, it’s a stupid video of somone doing something moronic that they will regret having posted online in five years.   While i think that this title is a bit over the top, I think the video of Gary Vaynerchuck that Saul of Freshbooks shares in this post is worth watching.

After the Election, Will Obama’s Online Army Target Congress? - This is an “old” but good one.  In this post, Colin Delany of E-politics.com discusses the possibility of Obama unleashing his online supporters on the hill to apply pressure on congress as needed to get legislation through were he to be elected president.  Very interesting read.

Finance Industry Giving Visualized -  In the wake of the current financial crisis, we’ve been wondering how the financial industry became such  “laissez faire” industry.  Well,  the good folks at the Sunlight foundation built a tool that shows campaign donations from the financial sector since the early 90’s.   Needless to say the findings dont boathe well for our elected officials who claim to be independent.

Twitter, Facebook, Charitable Campaigning - In this post, Jeff Trexter warns online community managers of 501(c)3 organizations about the hidden risks of Web 2.o technologies when it comes to online activism.  If you blog, tweet or manage your organization’s Facebook/MySpace page, this is a must read.

Five Ways to Use Social Media to Reach People Who Don’t Use Social Media - Have friends/colleagues that think social media is worthless?  Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb suggests five ways to rope them in.   If you’re already a web person, the suggestion are very easy to implement. I’m thinking of setting up Yahoo Pipes myself.

***Bonus***   The Playboys of Tech - The title is self-explanatory.  Who says geeks don’t know how to party?

If you are reading any interesting blogs, please don’t hesitate to share them with me via comment or email at blog at makembe dot com.  A more extensive list of shared reading items can be found on my Google reader shared page.

This is a guest post from the GFF–she took me out to dinner recently. We enjoyed the restaurant and wanted to share. She also wrote the other restaurant reviews on this blog.

I have been on a quest since I moved to DC a few years ago to try out as many different restaurants in the city as I possibly can. Last night, a friend and I chose to have dinner at Casa Oaxaca, in Adams Morgan. The restaurant bills itself as "authentic Mexican cuisine," and the menu reflects it. There are not fajitas, or chimichangas, or any of the staples of Tex-Mex restaurants. Instead, a whole section of the menu was focused on mole. I’m not even going to pretend to understand what mole really is, so you can check out wikipedia if you’re curious. Regardless, we were intrigued as to all the different types of mole the restaurant had to offer, so we asked the waiter for help. He very nicely brought out a plate of all the different mole sauces with some corn tortillas to dip. We sampled them all and quickly picked a few favorites. This was very helpful in deciphering the menu.

I chose the Mole Coloradito, which was beef served with a red mole sauce. It was really very good. The meat was cooked perfectly and sliced very thinly, and the sauce was really amazing. My friend chose to eat the mole poblano, which was a mole sauce served over chicken breast. It was very tasty, the chicken was not at all dry and the sauce was just the right amount of spiciness. Both meals were served with rice and black beans–making them a very good plate all around.

Overall we really enjoyed our dinner. The food was great and the service was equally good. Our waiter was very friendly and helpful and at one point, a man who seemed to be the manager stopped by to ask us how the meal was. We chatted with him for a few minutes about the restaurant and Mexican food. It was interesting to find out that they tweak their menu often, and will soon be re-adding grasshoppers to the menu. My dining companion was excited to return to try the grasshoppers, while I remain a bit unconvinced.

So, if you are looking for a different type of Mexican food, a change from the usual Tex-Mex stuff, I highly recommend Casa Oaxaca. It’s a great place to go for a reasonably priced, very good dinner.

We all know that I suck at updating  my photos but I do it once in  while.  Today is one of those days.   I’ve put up pictures  from Drew and Liz’s wedding earlier this summer as well as pictures from my most recent trip to Boston/NH for Boston Day of Action event and Rosh Hashana.  I decided not to put the pictures of the ServiceNation summit because they are already posted on BTC Flickr page. 

Neat video. Glad to see the expansion from the usual politically active entertainers.

My take on it is - If I can’t vote (b/c I’m a permanent resident), why should you?

On the serious. Don’t forget to register to vote.  Use Google maps to figure our you voting place (it will include links where you register to vote in your locality.  If you’re going to be out of town, use GovoteAbsentee.org.

Tags: Election 2008, Obama, McCain, Google, Vote08

Last weekend,  I had the distinct honor of participating the "Money in Politics" Grant Summit hosted by Mobilize.org in partnership with the Sunlight Foundation, and Common Cause.  According to their website, Mobilize.org:

Mobilize.org is an all-partisan network dedicated to educating, empowering, and energizing young people to increase our civic engagement and political participation. We work to show young people how public policy impacts our lives, and more importantly – how we can impact public policy.

The orgnization put its name on the map by taking over the 2100 Fund, an organization that raised funds for organzations promoting youth activism, and writing the  Democracy 2.0 Declaration (watch it). 

Admitidly, prior to the summit, I had heard of Mobilize.org but I was not very familiar w/ its work.  I had planned to submit a proposal for the summit but missed the deadline because of the Silverman campaign and the presidential forum.  As luck would have it,  at the forum, I got the priviledge and opportunity to meet mobilize’s CEO, Maya Enista, and work with her in a breakout session. During that time, I told her about my interest in the forum and she invited me to attend.  

A crucial piece of the summit was the ability for those attending to present ideas and plans that solve the issue of money in politics. From the mobilize.org website:

Competitors in the Democracy 2.0 Entrepreneur Grant Summit must advance a new solution or approach to the money in politics problem - that will change the pattern in the field of civic engagement. Winners will each receive a grant, between $3,000 and $5,000 and will receive the support of Mobilize.org and its partner network to champion their proposal, creating systemic and sustainable change in the way elections are administered.Competitors in the Democracy 2.0 Entrepreneur Grant Summit must advance a new solution or approach to the money in politics problem - that will change the pattern in the field of civic engagement. Winners will each receive a grant, between $3,000 and $5,000 and will receive the support of Mobilize.org and its partner network to champion their proposal, creating systemic and sustainable change in the way elections are administered.

On the first day, keynote speaker, former Representative John Buchanan, gave an inspiring address encouraging and challenging my generation, the Millenials, to become the greatest American generation. He pointed out that money has become an element in our democracy. Technology, along with other tools, makes it easier to promote transparency and hold elected officials more accountable.

The morning on the second day, Nancy Watzman, of the Sunlight Foundation, and Political Party Time, a blog dedicacated to tracking parties thrown at both party conventions as well as fundraising activities of lawmakers, spoke about her exprience trying to bring transparancy to government since the 1990s and all the Sunlight Foundation’s projects and resources.  Nancy’s address was followed by a panel that included Josh Zaharoff of Common Cause and Matt Stempeck of Americans for Campaign Reform. In the afternoon, Sam Rasoul, candidate for U.S. Congress in VA-6,  stopped by to talk to us about his campaigns, his goals, the change would try to enact in congress and what he has been able to accomplish so far in VA.   Between the two speakers, competitors had a chance to meet with panels of experts who gave them feedback about their proposals.

On the last day, David Mark, Senior Editor at Politico and author of Going Dirty, shared his thoughts about the current Presidential campaign as well as some notes about his book. Competitors also got a chance to present their proposals in front of the entire conference. Four winners were later announced. The first prize went to Sam Oliker-Friedland of GoVoteAbsentee.org.  I whole heartily agree with the decision, as his proposal was the most developed and most likely to be sustained over the course of time. Basically, his website takes any voter of any district in the US throught the process of getting an absentee ballot. Check it out (Facebook Page) if you get a chance, and please spread the word.

The summit was a great fun and learning experience. It was a eye-opener in the fact that it made me realize how many Millenials are invovled in the political process and are seeking to improve the process and make it more accessible to everyone. I feel as though we sometimes get a bad rap for being overconnected and lazy and the summit gives us as a gneration the chacne to fight that stereotype and put our best effort into improving our democracy.

Tags: Democracy 2.0, Mobilize.org, Money in Politics Grant Summit, Sunlight Foundation, Common Cause, Just6dollars.org