Election workers toted iPads, temporarily on loan from Apple, to assisted living centers where the voter was able to complete their ballot on the tablet, then send to a portable printer.

A custom software application, which cost the state $75,000 to develop, was installed on the iPads for the election cycle. Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown said the state plans to use the iPads again in January for a special general election, and mentioned utilizing the software in the future to provide accessible voting for military personnel and citizens who are overseas.

According to the Oregon Secretary of State’s blog:

If the pilot proves successful, the state elections office will make iPad’s available to all 36 counties. “I won my first race for the Oregon House of Representatives by seven votes,” said Secretary Brown. “I know how important every vote is and as your Secretary of State I am working hard to make voting more accessible to all eligible Oregonians.

With the popularity of Apple’s iPad, and the accessibility of tablet computing, will we soon see similar applications around the country? A mail ballot 2.0 program that embraces new technology to increase voter participation? We sure hope so.

And it was fun.

With each individual political race we reviewed, we grew more encouraged. We were thrilled to play a role in victorious campaigns, of course. But it wasn’t until we had time to reflect on these campaigns that we realized just how effectively each candidate used online communication to strengthen their operation.

Ellen Cohen (Houston City Council – District C)
Council Member-Elect Cohen (that has a nice ring to it) brought her field organization to the masses by rolling out an interactive component on her website to connect the campaign directly to their most dedicated volunteers. Volunteers chose their volunteer activity and preferred times, which saved the campaign time in not having to make phone calls and keep multiple schedules. The campaign was also able to update this tool regularly as volunteer priorities shifted—special events surrounding holidays, working the polls, or GOTV efforts.

Ed Gonzalez (Houston City Council – District H)
Council Member Gonzalez launched a text messaging platform which surveyed constituents to gauge opinion on particular issues of interest in District H. They were also provided with election information, including a way to look up their polling place. Text messaging was chosen to complement the council member’s existing communication tools—a signup was integrated on his website and promoted through social networking, as well as promoted ‘offline’ to reach those that may not be social network users or computer owners.

Melissa Noriega (Houston City Council – At Large, Pct. 3)
By spreading the word about the Noriega campaign using a socially-connected portal on Melissa’s site, a supporter became eligible to grab a cup of coffee with the council member. The call to ‘Espresso Self’ was wildly popular. The event not only grew Melissa’s online supporter base, some of the ideas and relationships developed at the meeting became an integral part of the campaign.

Net Victories is thankful to have teamed up with these campaigns to help implement their customized online campaign components. Because of their success, our post-campaign exhaustion passed quickly. We feel like we’ve ‘hit refresh’—and we’re already planning new ideas to help good candidates in 2012!

While not all of these features are completely new, many are being relocated from rarely-visited privacy settings pages to more convenient spots like the news feed and profile pages. New inline profile controls allow you to control visibility of nearly every bit of information you share.

We’ve compiled the following list of updates to help you get familiar with the changes:

Profile

Major changes include:

• Greater profile control: Profile visibility controls now appear directly next to content when you edit your profile.
• In-line cues: Facebook will display a globe, friend or gear icon to indicate whether a piece of content is public, only seen by friends or customized for a friend group or list.
• “View Profile As”: The “View Profile As” feature has been moved from the Privacy Settings Page to the top right-hand corner of the user profile.
• Overhaul of the Privacy Page: The privacy overhaul will result in a much cleaner and simpler Privacy Page, since most of the privacy settings are now integrated at the profile page level.

Tags

Major changes include:

• Tag reviews: Facebook has implemented a system where users can approve or reject photo, status or location tags before they appear on their profiles.
• Photo tagging changes: Because of the tag reviews feature, Facebook felt comfortable allowing a user to tag anybody in a photo, regardless of whether they are friends. This makes it simpler to tag people in group shots. Users must approve these tags before they appear on a user’s profile.
• Tags in the Publisher Box: It’s easier to see who is being tagged in a status update. The left-hand side of the Publisher Box now includes an area for managing tags.
• New untagging features: If a user untags oneself from a photo, they will be given the option to send a request to the photo’s uploader to remove it. They will also have the option of blocking that person entirely.

Status Updates & Location

Major changes include:

• Public updates: The “Everyone” option in status updates has been renamed “Public” for greater clarity.
• No more lock icon: The lock icon under the Publisher Box has also been changed. It will now display the globe, friend or gear icon based on whether the update is public, for friends or custom.
• Facebook Places integration: Facebook Places has been integrated into the Publisher Box. Users can now tag a location into any status update. The same applies to photos and photo albums.
• No more GPS restriction: Users can now tag any location in a status update or photo, regardless of whether they’re actually nearby. This makes it possible tag a location for a photo album after the user has returned home.
• Mobile changes: The Facebook Places icon will no longer appear in the mobile apps. Instead a “Nearby” icon will take its place. It will display which users have tagged their location nearby.

Want to know more? Head on over to Facebook and dig into the details.

They are called QR codes. QR stands for ‘Quick Response.’  Born in Japan, they are used to quickly transmit information from an object to your cell phone.

Say, for example, you see a QR code on a magazine ad for a upcoming television mini series. Once your cell phone reads the code, you may be shown a URL which you can click to watch a video trailer for the show.

With more heft than a standard barcode, QR codes can provide access to more data, hyperlinks, and text. You’ll need to install a QR code reader on your phone: try QR Reader for iPhone or QR Droid.

• Hangout.  Here, up to 10 people can visit with each other online via video chat.
• Instant Upload.  When using the Google+ apps for iPhone and Android, as soon as you snap a pic or shoot a video, Google+ will automatically upload it to a private ‘circle.’
• Sparks.  Whenever something piques your curiosity, simply enter the subject into Sparks. Related content will automatically be found and waiting for you when you have a moment to view.
• Huddle.  Similar to group texting, Huddle allows a circle of your friends to engage in one chat simultaneously.

Google+ is also behind the new “+1″ buttons that are starting to pop up on the web next to Facebook “like” buttons and Twitter “tweet” buttons.

Want to check out Google+? Just visit plus.google.com, log in with your GMail account, and start exploring!

Perhaps it’s fitting that we officially opened our doors during the summer of 2008 — in the heat of the presidential election, when Barack Obama exploded on to the scene and into the intersection of political and technology. Campaigning changed, and online communication was the driver. Net Victories was fortunate to launch in an environment full of potential.

Gifted people have worked for Net Victories these past few years, particularly Dan Derozier and Dan Joyce  — both of whom have been through the hardest parts of what we do and handled it with grace, continuing to produce great products and services for our clients. It’s not lost on me or ‘the Dans’ that we are able to do great work because we have great people — our clients, our friends, and our families — supporting us. Today we celebrate not only our birthday, but you as well.

Thanks for a great first three years.
Celinda
Owner & Founder, Net Victories

The Benefit of Experience

WIth a depth of experience in website design and development comes agility. Because professionals work on a large number and wide variety of online projects, the design options they offer clients aren’t limited to a single template or script. Experience means familiarity with a wide array of common problems and solutions—enabling a web professional to create a website that fits your exact needs. Your website is your online headquarters and will be the first impression your campaign makes on many visitors. Sacrifices related to its development could determine whether or not your full online communications campaign is ultimately successful.

The Background Check

Before entrusting your website to someone, you probably want to review references. Professionals make it easy to view their portfolios, where you can verify the quality of their work and the general experience level of a firm. The price may be right if choosing to work with an unknown or amateur web developer, but you typically get what you pay for—a risk you may not want to take with something as important as your online reputation.

Constant Accountability

If you want to update your website, will you have the ability to make that happen? Without a professional firm, are you certain you know when it will be completed? If you encounter a problem after the website is launched, how quickly can it be resolved? A professional can be held accountable for a project, and will respond capably and quickly. Furthermore, professional firms operate under contract, which defines roles, sets expectations, and protects both sides.

Ongoing Attention

During a campaign, things change. News stories drop, endorsements are earned, and elections are won. Will you make sure that your website is taking full advantage of developments in the race? Professional web strategists are here to monitor your situation, identify opportunities, and have a process in place so your online campaign will adapt to changing circumstances.

Be Notified of Fan Activity

You no longer need to continually monitor your Facebook Fan page to learn if and when others are participating in your online conversation. Now you will automatically receive a notification via email when a fan ‘interacts’ (i.e. posts a message on your wall, clicks ‘Like’ on something you’ve posted) with your page. This is a big step forward in facilitating effective (and prompt!) two-way communication between you and your fan network.

Interact As Your Fan Page

Another new function that will make your online efforts more robust is the ability to interact – as your Fan page – on others’ walls and event pages. Before, Facebook users were only permitted to engage is such activity through their personal profile pages.  Now your campaign or organization can also share, comment, and ‘Like’ via its Fan page.  So get active, and raise your organization’s profile!
HERE’S HOW: Before you can take action as your FAN page, you must click ‘Use Facebook As’ in right column.

Change Your Category

Has the title or mission of your organization changed since your Facebook Fan page was initially created? Fret not. You can now change your page category to align with your current role.
HERE’S HOW: Click ‘Edit info’ under your page’s title at the top of your wall. You will then land on the Basic Information page, where you will find ‘Category’ as the first item listed.

Leverage Your Photo Strip

The top of your Fan Page wall now features a photo strip. This strip consists of the latest five photos you’ve uploaded to the site, or photos in which someone has ‘tagged’ (connected to) your organization.  This new feature provides you with a new way to prominently and creatively display images from your organization’s people/activities. Be mindful, that if you have no pictures posted on your fan page, the strip will remain blank – which is unappealing to a visitor. Also, monitor the strip from time to time, just in case an unflattering or unrelated photo is mistakenly tagged by someone and auto-posted to your wall (if this happens, simply ‘hide’ the image).

Note New Home for Tabs

Just a heads-up here. The new layout resulted in relocation of tabbed applications (‘Wall,’ ‘Info,’ ‘Photos,’ ‘Notes’).  These tabs that once appeared at the top of the wall, now find their home in a vertical pane below your organization’s profile photo in the left-hand column.

Purpose driven activity

We agree with Wael Ghonim, the Egyptian Google exec who was kidnapped and tortured for two weeks before he was released and became perhaps the recognizable voice in the #Jan25 movement. He said, “The real heroes are the ones on the ground.” The primary purpose of the online communication coming out of the #Jan25 movement was to capitalize on and to help drive offline protests of the Mubarak government.

New found power

It’s a powerful statement that the people behind the #Jan25 movement referred to themselves as “cyberactivists.” While heroism may have come from being on the street, or from standing in front of police, the fact that these organizers saw themselves rooted in and empowered by the Internet demonstrates their clear recognition of social networks as organizing tools. They fully leveraged social media instead of viewing it as a novelty.

Build it before you need it

In April 2008, A group of Egyptians planned to support an industrial workers strike. In order to organize, they started a Facebook group. Many members came from groups already formed in opposition to President Murbarak. This group grew into over 70,000 people and eventually drew recognition from the international community. These cyberactivists grew massive online communities of like-minded people so that when the moment came, they had a way to disseminate information.

For more about the historic movement in Egypt, we recommend watching an interview with Alec J. Ross (Senior Adviser at the US Department of State) on the impact of social media in the Middle East

That technology featured so prominently in the President’s address signals the strong influence of the Internet in shaping American life. Most dramatically, perhaps, is its effect on making possible the shift from the one-way communication of traditional politics to a new two-way ‘dialogue’ between government and citizens.

Congress.org just recently launched MegaVote, a tool through which you can receive e-mail updates that report how your congressional representative voted. The message includes information related to upcoming votes for your review and, through a link provided, offers you an opportunity to e-mail the lawmaker with your input before they vote.

Closer to home, the Texas Tribune offers a data-driven application to track bills filed during the 82nd Texas Legislature. Updated daily, users can search by bill number, caption, subject or author. Perhaps best of all, the app puts the data in context, making it easier to understand potential legislation “in ways that traditionally would be used by reporters to write text stories.”

To learn about additional tools to keep you connected this legislative session, follow Net Victories on Twitter and “Like” us on Facebook. We dish the info as we find it.