Plugging In to the Democratic, Republican Conventions

2008 DNC and RNC Are Leveraging Streaming Video, Social Networking, More

Social Networking

The conventions also are doing their best to continue the effort that the campaigns began of inviting citizen involvement through social networking.

Google, the Official Innovation Provider for the Republican convention, “will enhance the GOP's online presence with new applications, search tools and interactive video,” the RNC recently told xchange. The convention's Web site eventually will feature a variety of Google products, including Google Apps, Google Maps, SketchUp and YouTube. As part of its online video effort with YouTube, the RNC also staged an online video contest inviting Americans to submit video responses to the question, “Why are you a Republican in 2008?” The winner was announced Aug. 14.

"Our goal is to engage as many people around the country as possible in the national convention," said RNC President and CEO Maria Cino. "We're excited to partner with YouTube to empower our supporters everywhere to broadcast their messages to the world leading up to our convention."

In addition to YouTube, both conventions are taking advantage of popular social networking platforms such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, to which they have provided links from their Web sites to pages related to their candidates within these online communities. The DNCC told xchange that DemConvention.com will continue to provide up-to-the-minute news and features on the blog and information on volunteer opportunities, delegate selection, the nomination process and past Democratic Conventions, including the first Democratic National Convention in Denver 100 years ago.

The DNCC also is including extensive Spanish language content on its Web site. Dewey Digital, the DNCC’s Official Website Producer, is providing the platform and services to enable the Web site to present this kind of content, among other information and features.

Productivity Applications

The DNCC site also has been designed to act as an “online home” to meet and organize before, during and after the convention through various social networking applications like Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and others.

VerticalResponse, the Official Subscription E-mail Provider of the 2008 Democratic National Convention, will help the DNCC deliver its monthly e-mail newsletter, the "Mile High Monthly," as well as other e-mail updates to people interested in the lead-up to the four-day event, as well as other activities during convention week.

Microsoft has been chosen to outfit the DNCC with the tools to support delegate tracking, voting and the management of credentials. The software giant will enable a voting system that will provide up-to-the-minute delegate vote totals electronically to the Office of the Secretary of the DNC. In addition to custom development, Microsoft is providing the DNCC with business productivity, e-mail, content services and real-time collaboration applications.

Microsoft is also on board with the Republican convention. As Official Technology Provider, the RNCC said Microsoft is offering the tools and knowledge to streamline workflow and cut down on paper usage, which the Republicans say is “a key provision to our green commitment.” In addition, Microsoft will showcase its Surface platform to provide a digital concierge for RNC participants.

To monitor media coverage of the convention the DNCC has signed on ShadowTV Inc. as its Official Video Monitoring Service Provider. Through this relationship, ShadowTV will provide the DNCC with all-digital, continuous access to live and archived television content via its Web-based service, which allows users to search the closed-captioning text in news clips and receive real-time alerts when keywords are mentioned in television programming. Using this technology, the DNCC will be able to retrieve footage instantly from more than 250 television stations across the country.

"With an estimated 15,000 members of the media attending the 2008 Democratic National Convention, it is incredibly important that we have the ability to track the enormous amount of broadcast coverage resulting from the event," said Jenni Engebretsen, deputy CEO for public affairs of the DNCC. "ShadowTV's video monitoring technology will play an integral role in allowing us to know what the media are saying and when they say it, both in the lead-up to and during convention week."

The Politics of Broadband

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, watching political videos, using social networking sites and making contributions online have become more prominent during the presidential primary campaigns.

About 35 percent of Americans say they have watched online political videos — a figure that nearly triples the reading the Pew Internet Project got in the 2004 race.

Meanwhile, one in 10 Americans report they have used social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace to gather information or become involved. Pew says this is particularly popular with younger voters.

Online contributions also are growing, Pew says, reporting that 6 percent of Americans have made political contributions online, compared with 2 percent during the entire 2004 campaign.

The Qwest for Convention

It’s an important time for Qwest Communications International Inc. The company has been named the Official (Tele)communications Provider for both the 2008 Democratic and Republican National Conventions.

Chuck Ward, Qwest’s president for Colorado, said his company has two contracts related to the Democratic event, one with the DNC convention committee, to which it donates services in exchange for its official provider status to the event, and one with the Denver host committee, which handles the marketing aspects of the convention and local events and tourism around it. Together, these two organizations are expected to enjoy up to $6 million in Qwest services, which will include everything from a single line voice connection to PRI, to 10/100meg and 1gig connectivity, he said. In addition, Qwest is selling its services to media and other customers attending the event, he said.

Matt Rotter, Qwest’s vice president of network operations for Colorado and Wyoming, said the carrier’s network in and around the venue will include plenty of fiber and offer diverse routes. Forty gigabits of bandwidth is going into the Pepsi Center, which is an existing Qwest customer and has six floors, and there will be no oversubscription of bandwidth, he added. Very large parking lots outside the Pepsi Center also include pavilions to which Qwest is providing voice and data services, he continued.

“We’ll showcase what we can do for a complex, multilocation customer,” said Ward. “But we do that every day.”

“The focus is on reliability, not flash,” he continued.

Meanwhile, in St. Paul, Minn., Qwest upgraded its metro network and expanded its fiber infrastructure in and around the Xcel Energy Center, promising up to a gigabyte of bandwidth at all points inside the arena, to enable Internet as well as voice and other data applications. The Qwest-serving central office is just two city blocks from the Xcel venue, and there is an 864-fiber strand connecting the two sites, said Trent Clausen, director of operations at Qwest for the RNC network, who said Qwest committed $6 million to the RNC effort in exchange for the ability to market itself as the official provider of the convention.

In addition to the service and marketing deal, Qwest, along with Microsoft, also is sponsoring The St. Paul Pioneer Press and essay contest related to the convention, and is participating in a local festival involving Smithsonian exhibits and more events, which are expected to draw 150,000 attendees.

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