Demand Question Time - Live RoundTable

[Michael Moffo]

Hello Team,

I hope everyone in the mid-Atlantic region is enjoying #Snowpocalypse.

In the wake of our successful rollout, time is running short for us to take concrete steps for the next "phase" of Demand Question Time. Based upon the conversations with many of you, I've taken a crack at an initial proposal that I think will be successful. I'd like everyone to take a look at it---and offer your feedback and ideas. I did this quickly, so please feel free to be critical and offer alternatives. My list of suggested participants was made with all due respect to everyone included on this list---in other words, just some quick suggestions based upon my knowledge of the size of everyone's online/offline following.

Micah and I would like to get moving on this (or some alternative action) as soon as possible.

Many thanks once again for all your support!

M.

--
Mike Moffo
SS+K

1325 Pennsylvania Ave, 5th Floor
Washington, DC  20003
202-756-4165 (o)
712-898-3289 (c)

Page: http://ssk.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ssandk
Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/d7zpfl

[Micah Sifry]

Here's Mike's full memo, in case you can't open it:

BACKGROUND:
After the significant success of Demand Question Time's launch, the
pressure is on us to decide what's next. On Thursday morning, I
initiated some discussion on the Google group about how to stay in the
news and grow our list. There was a fair bit of back-and-forth, but no
single idea really seemed to break through.
Below I have laid out some creative ways I think we can break into
another news cycle (probably aim for Tuesday or Wednesday for the
actual event). What we need is to "make news."

I think the formula for another media cycle like we had on Wednesday
is some combination of:
A) HIGHLIGHT PROMINENT SUPPORTERS: high-profile petition-signers
really helped us on Wednesday. In most stories it was the lead.

B) MOVE THE BALL POLITICALLY: Demand Question Time saying something in
direct response to the White House and congressional leaders will
increase relevance. This was illustrated by the coverage that David
Corn’s question of Bill Burton received.
C) PROCESS STORY/TECHNOLOGY BREAKTHROUGH: This is always a favorite
storyline of the cable news nets. If we use the latest technology as a
message channel, this becomes news in and of itself.

PROPOSAL:
Create a real-life event. Broadcast through an online channel. Create
buzz over time. Add one component to our social media footprint and
push everything through every channel we have.

We could call it a “roundtable” or a “press conference” or a “live
web event.” Whatever we think will strike a balance between unique and
newsworthy.
Look at the president’s schedule, legislative calendar and pick a
media cycle we have the best chance of breaking into.

Set-up the time, guest lineup, and link at least 48 hours in advance
so we can do press around the announcement as well as the actual
event. Keep it as simple as possible to avoid diluting it with too
many moving parts. Ideally, all participants would be in the same
place. A big question will be if the technology will allow
participants to join from different locations and for it to still
work.

Essentially we are adding one more element to our social media
footprint and generating buzz through a “countdown” to the event. Set
up the Ustream.TV page and take RSVPs. Link it from the petition page,
Facebook and Twitter. Link all those back to the UStream.TV page.

SUGGESTED PARTICIPANTS:
LEFT OF CENTER:

David Corn

Markos Moulitsas

Ana Marie Cox

Katrina Vanden Heuvel
RIGHT OF CENTER:

Mark McKinnon

Grover Norquist

Glenn Reynolds

Mindy Finn

MODERATOR:

Bill Press

Andrew Sullivan

Craig Newmark

* Someone with a huge UStream following. . .

POTENTIAL APPEARANCE BY NEW SIGN-ONS:

Senator Bob Kerrey

Karl Rove

CONTENT OF THE SHOW:
Open with the “story of us.”
Include a re-cap of all coverage and growth of the petition
Review a re-cap of statements/positions of White House and
congressional leadership
Give a “response” to those current positions
Publicly pose open question to White House leadership – start
countdown until they deliver a response
Moderated discussion of strengths of concerns of QuestionTime
Take live questions from the chat room and/or Twitter stream during the show
Next steps for the “Demand Question Time”
Forum to post opinion
Blog on the petition site
Media tracker on the petition site
Real-life event(s)
Ceremonial delivery of the petition in paper form

Stay focused on QuestionTime, try not to stray into too many other topics.
Keep it to 60 minutes.

--
http://www.personaldemocracy.com
http://www.techpresident.com
http://micah.sifry.com
http://www.twitter.com/mlsif

[Micah Sifry]

Mike--

In general, I like the idea of pushing towards some kind of live
online event where we tell the "story of us" and get a couple of our
strange-bedfellow supporters (and/or some bigger names) to talk
together about why QT is needed. However, I think we need to talk
practically about our internal capacity to pull something like that
off (i.e. who is going to do what, who has time to do what), and in
the meantime buy some time to allow that discussion to play out.

So, here's my suggestion for the beginning of the coming week:
--Let's send an email to our list of 15K that starts a line of
communication with them, creates a place for feedback from them on
what they believe and what we should do next, and finally, makes one
simple ask: if you have a blog or a website or a Facebook profile,
embed our petition to help get more people involved.

Along with this, I'd open up a post on the blog for people to say a)
why I support QT and b) what we should do next.

This will help build a sense of participation and ownership, which I
think is absolutely vital to whatever bigger asks and tasks we tackle
going forward.

Micah

[David Corn]

That all sounds good to me. I'm assuming our MSM media blitz will be
ending. Unless one of us becomes involved in a sex scandal. Any
volunteers?

David Corn
Office: 202-347-7958
Cell: 301-379-3282
Washington bureau chief
Mother Jones
Winner of the 2008 National Magazine Award for General Excellence

[Micah Sifry]

Michael et al:

I got a lot of interesting advice this weekend from folks who were attending the same retreat as me (a mix of techies, entrepreneurs, social change activists). 

Here's my takeaway and alternative proposal to yours. Let's call yours the more ambitious, "fast build" tack and mine the somewhat slower "slow burn" tack.

1. Let's get our house in order. That means at least our steering committee, or those core folks who want to take some time to hammer things out, just taking a little time to clarify who is managing what, how much time we have, and what processes we'd like to use for basic things like posting on the site, emailing the list, etc. That also includes getting a mass email tool set up, at a minimum. I'm prepared to take the lead on this during this coming week.

2. Priority one: Grow the list a bit more. Let's do the obvious "low-hanging fruit" of emailing the list (say, on Wednesday, a week after our launch), and setting some basic communications in motion: please ask your friends to sign, please post the petition widget if you can, please join the Facebook group. Also, please chime in on the blog--if you want to be more involved--and introduce yourself, say a bit about why you support QT, and feel free to offer your suggestions on what we should do next. (I'm also thinking that we invite anyone who wants to join a new Google Group for all DQT supporters who want to be involved in advancing the ball forward.)

   I'd also include in this category reaching out to more top political bloggers to see if we can't generate something like "Top 50 political bloggers for QT" (which would obviously help get more signers).

   We also could devote a bit more time to recruiting prominent endorsers.

3. Develop, in consultation with various folks including our core signers, the folks who respond to our email/blog, and some individuals with experience in this arena, a list of tactics. These already could include:

-a national call/fax the White House day

-contact your Member of Congress to find out if they support a regular QT, report back, build a map of where the idea stands in Congress

-as we get more unlikely bedfellows, roll out the announcement of their involvement in ways aimed at earning media attention (a joint YouTube video, whatever)

-do some kind of online freewheeling live conversation with a number of our core supporters on how often we think QT ought to happen: weekly? monthly? quarterly? etc...and then after drawing attention of signers to that, ask the whole list to vote on which we should push for.

-get more clarity from our folks on what the exact thing is that they're after: is it actual Pres-GOP Question Time, or is it some kind of general improvement in the national debate, or something else? This too could be done by asking key people to record a video comment or blog post, and then asking the list to register their support for particulars

-do a "web-in" along the lines of what Michael outlines below.

Micah