Question for you, and this is where my political naivete comes in.
There is an established way of doing all things including communicating within the Republican party and most importantly, the Republican Party with the general public. Websites that are all ready up, email lists already put together. So the question is, is it easier better to create brand new communication channels and do it in a new way using new technologies, or is it easier better to use what we have that is broken, and revive and and fix it.
Here again, there are positives and negatives to both sides. On the surface this is what I see.
- Append our efforts to current efforts.
- Benefit: Current efforts are already in place and there is some communication happening on them.
- Detractor: We must work with the old system, and more importantly, the people running the old system and they must be on board and not fight this.
- Create new communication channels.
- Obviously the opposite of what I stated above is true. The downside is we are starting over. The upside is we don’t have to integrate or deal with the current system/people(gatekeepers).
Now having said all this. I’m entirely positive it is not quite black and white like I have stated it. Please comment and explain where I am mistaken so that we can do this right and the most effectively. As you know, I’m just a technologist that wants to see a conservative government. But even I can see that we are losing on the technology front, and this is an area we can make huge headway.
This is not a thoroughly fleshed out thought, but it just struck me, so I’m putting it out here, hoping to get some feedback and come up with the right answer.
1st thought: If we create open source tools, anyone can use them. This can be good of course, they will be improved by us, private enterprise, tinkerers, and anyone else who wants to. Downside, everyone else will have access to our tools, including those we with to defeat.
2nd thought: Proprietary means we could only supply the tools to those with a common cause. Downside, we will be required to do all the work ourselves.
3rd thought: Just how am I going to pay for all this? I would like to think I will give away the tools so that even local they can be used on a local level as well as a state and national, but as much as I want to help, I still need to put food on the table. Can I get funded from a high level, or get a few big contracts where I can share the technology with those with a common cause, or will I have to charge each campaign, and thus likely shunning the local level, which are no less important than the higher levels.
4th thought: What type of business should I set up around this? For-profit or not-for-profit. I’m only experienced with for-profit companies, so am not really sure. I can ask some people, but thought I would throw this out there.
5th thought: I’m firmly in the camp of a technologist first, and an interest in politics second. I see some other groups out there saying they want to help the Republican Party with their technology, but they seem to me to merely be people realizing they are outmatched on this front. The cavalry has arrived. You are welcome.
6th thought: I’m setting the framework for what I intend to build, thoughts on what you think that should be?
7th thought: Let’s get this party started!
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