johninnit

Certainly impressed with the state of the art technology on MyConservatives.com!

I mean, being able to instantly automatically identify me as a wrong ‘un from my IP addy and targetedly refuse me access like this, whilst I imagine letting all the 2.0Tories straight in without any hiccups, that’s some mad skillz! Would expect nothing less from “probably the most advanced party political campaigning network of its kind outside of America”.

UPDATE 4/10/09: Here’s more on the story from El Reg. Admittedly much respect for the 404 pages though…

I bought a suit a couple of years back for a conference in the States. I’d arrived and unpacked, only to find my suit had been hanging unused for so long at home that moths had been right through it. Bit of a panic, but I was cheered up tremendously by finding a UNITE union made logo tucked into the inside pocket of my new Hart Marx whistle.

Well, it seems I’m in good company, as that 136 year old US gents’ outfitter has an even more notable client than me – a certain Barack Obama. Unfortunately both the POTUS and I could now be in danger of losing our sartorial shine, as the firm are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, with a bailed-out bank trying to deny Hart Marx the second chance they themselves received. (more…)

Okay – I’ve succumbed to the inexplicable Twitter frenzy that everyone seems to be afflicted by of late, and will be tweeting away at the Put People First G20 march and rally in London this weekend. It could actually be fun to see how well a crowd of activists are able to report live from a big event like this. (more…)

I’ve got a campaign, yay! Well, if this banker-bothering online lark is good enough for John Prescott, I might as well have a punt too. LabourSpace is a neat idea – a kind of Policy Idol contest, with anyone (Labour supporter or no) able to add a campaign and solicit votes for it. They’ve done this before, but this time round it’s much whizzier – a proper network with ways to interact with those who support (or oppose) you, and tools to help you spread the word. The winners get, well nothing really, but that’s hardly the point – senior Labour figures are checking in on it as it progresses, and the chance to demonstrate how popular an idea is in this kind of arena is fun in itself.

I think it has a load of potential for training activists of all stripes, and getting new people excited at the thought of doing something political for a change. Unfortunately the execution is a little sticky – registration is smooth enough, but changing your profile needs moderation, and multiple changes before modding seem to wipe earlier attempts. You can understand why they’re anxious about moderating it, but at the same time it’s a bit stifling. Similarly the widgets are great, but don’t all work for everyone (I have yahoo.co.uk email, so the nifty yahoo.com addy book scooper doesn’t help me). Unfair to gripe though – there are going to be more rounds of it (this one’s nearly over), and the quirks will no doubt get ironed out as it goes.

So, coming late to the scene with only 2 weeks left, I’m going to have a tough time getting my campaign voted up anywhere near the top of the pile. Luckily it’s a bit of a no brainer in the current climate, and an idea that I hope is going to be popular: Minimum tax rates. (more…)

UnionBook is a brand new social network, but one specifically for international union activists and supporters.

You probably have accounts already on Facebook, YouTube, flickr and a dozen more, and are wondering why on earth we would need a dedicated service for unions.

Two reasons… (more…)

Good post today at JP Rangaswami’s Confused of Calcutta. He’s been reading Pew Internet’s latest report on post-election voter engagement (always one reason his excellent blog gets my gratitude, as he pulls out so many great nuggets from Pew Internet and saves me having to read them all! Now, if he’d just stop going on about cricket…).

When people signed up (as they did in their droves) for MyBarackObama.com accounts, they thought they were entering into a relationship with the campaign that would last well beyond the goal of the election. Apparently 62% of Obama voters fully expect to be involved in campaigning to actually deliver his policies (25% of online recruits expecting to be able to keep active online in this way). 46% expect ongoing communications directly from Obama and his team (and 33% of McCain voters expect it from their guy too, showing they, like he, are certainly ‘aware of the internet’). 27% of online Obama voters have been keen enough to follow the transition period online too. (more…)

It will be a tense day in Harare today as members of the ZCTU and other Zimbabwean civil society organisations assemble symbolically outside their banks to protest at the management of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe under governor Gideon Gono.

The Bank is limiting cash withdrawals to $500,000 a week, though under mounting civil pressure has agreed to increase this to $100,000,000. This staggering amount (even after the country already devalued the dollar by 10 zeros back in June this year) is still not enough to buy a week’s worth of food and medicines (at the time of a serious outbreak of Cholera), and amounts to the Bank in effect appropriating ordinary people’s own money, leaving them unable to spend what savings they have whilst they’re still worth something. (more…)

Urgent campaign action

Farzad Kamangar is an Iranian teacher, unionist and human rights activist, charged by the Revolutionary Court of Iran with being a terrorist (through alleged links to the PKK) and sentenced to death on no convincing evidence.

The international teachers’ union federation, Education International, has learned that Farzad has been taken from his political prisoner’s cell in Evin prison (where he has been tortured and denied medical treatment)  today in preparation for execution by hanging. He may be executed in the next few hours – it is already afternoon in Iran. (more…)

An interesting request from Derek in Canada. They have a dispute going on at Toronto’s York University that looks to be shaping up as a bunch of milestones in online union activism – all of them ++ungood. (more…)

Politics and new-media goodie-bag blog Dadblog is sadly shutting up shop, but luckily only to move a few doors down the road to “I’ve Said Too Much“, where lloydshep opens up again with an interesting take on how the internet both helps and hinders campaigning. (more…)