Drop.io: the Next Generation in Content Sharing

Drop.io, a Brooklyn startup founded by Harvard grad Sam Lessin, is the most encompassing and useful technology tool I’ve found in 2008.

A months ago, a colleague asked for my recommendation of the best online project management tool.  I had experience using Basecamp, and I still think it’s a great tool, especially for using over extended periods of time. Plus, for simple document sharing and commenting, it’s a very simple and useful site that I would recommend today.

However, drop.io is truly the next generation in content sharing, the first tool of its kind that truly incorporates the social web as a content creator along with word-processing and presentation software.  

Drop.io works by creating, what it calls “drops,” a non-searchable and private portal (can be password protected) to share content with whomever the drop creator chooses.  In a few clicks, I was able to share video and audio files very seamlessly.  Check out this drop.io demo video to view how their tool works:

After using drop.io, the slickest thing about creating, sharing and responding to drops is the array of ways to upload and respond to content.  I can use my Facebook account, phone, email and more to reply to drop.io.  That sort of usefulness represents the very best of the social web and is definitely ahead of the curve with regard to content creation and sharing.  In other words, the more ways for me to use drop.io, the increased liklihood that I will continue to use it.  

For public affairs, I see this tool as being innovative in two ways.  First, as I alluded to earlier, as project management tool, drop.io can is the next generation in file sharing.

In addition, I see drop.io as a new way for candidates to reach voters and volunteers during an election.  Precisely because drops are  non-searchable, drop.io is uniquely positioned to share all sorts of media with an “insider” group, like volunteers or even more generally, supporters.  Drops are will be great for community building and for giving voters a greater sense of ownership of a political campaign.  Drops holding a variety of content can even help replace (or work alongside) email as the best mode of interactive information sharing.  

As I’ve highlighted before in this blog, candidates need to bring down barriers between their campaigns and their publics.  Drop.io can help.  

We’ve got at least one special election coming up in Illinois’ 5th Congressional District, Rahm Emmanuel’s vacated seat.  Here’s a good chance to put this tool to work in what promises to be a close race between at least two progressive, well-known candidates.

Chicago Alderman Flores Gets Twitter

Yesterday, Alderman Flores and I become followers of each other on Twitter.  To my knowledge, he’s the only Chicago City Councilman using Twitter.

Alderman Manny Flores

 

 

A quick scan of his Tweets demonstrates the Alderman really gets Twitter.  Yesterday, Ald. Flores posted seven Tweets to give his followers a sense of what his daily schedule is and what issues he’s paying attention to.  Examples include:

“visiting with students from Noble Street Charter High School to discuss alternative energy to help students prepare for a debate”

“having his office staff attend a briefing of the Chicago Climate Action Plan conducted by the Chicago Department of Environment.”

“leaving the Academy for Global Citizenship – great curriculum. Very inspiring.”

In Chicago especially, this level of transparency is vital because of the long history of shadiness and corruption (Ed Vrdoliak???).  For his constituents and followers, Flores is demonstrating his understanding that the public wants to see how he spends his time, how he manages staff resources and where he stands on issues.  The more he can communicate to the public and open himself up, the more trust he will receive. 

Trust is everything in politics.  Simply by using Twitter, Flores is strategically working to earn the political capital that he’ll need to take on bigger issues and manage a larger political profile.

Beyond Twitter, I went over to Ald. Flores website as his Twitter presence piqued my curiosity.  The design was simple, the information useful and straightforward.  I especially liked that the staff was listed, noting their areas of expertise and matters they deal with, along with their contact info.  That’s good constituent service.  

Furthermore, Flores’ set up a nice email reply that came when I signed up for his e-newsletter.  Here’s the response I received: 

 

Dear Jesse,  Welcome to Alderman Manuel Flores, 1st Ward. We are happy to have you as a member of our community. Your email address and interest preferences have been recorded in our database. In the future, you will receive periodic emails specific to your interests. Privacy is important to us; therefore, we will not sell, rent, or give your name or address to anyone. At any point, you can select the link at the bottom of every email to unsubscribe, or to receive less or more information. Thanks again for registering. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact us. Sincerely, Alderman Manuel Flores Alderman Manuel Flores, 1st Ward

How to Manage the Netroots Relationship as President-Elect

I found over the course of the last two weeks that the Obama emails have slowed to a trickle.  After his election victory, there certainly has not been a lack of news to report or reason to let his carefully constructed netroots go by the wayside.

In many ways, this period as president-elect is vital for Obama to live up to the promise that change on the way – that the way elected officials, yes even presidents, communicate with their grassroots will be conducted with greater transparency.

Justin Boland writing for the html times provides a great analysis of the way Obama used his netroots with on-the-ground strategy to carry him to victory.  Even more, Boland suggests that the same information sharing and organzing Obama supporters did on behalf of their candidate has to continue in a constructive manner if the campaign promises Obama made are to be lived up to.

So far, this hasn’t happened.  Case in point, the emails we all receive from David Plouffe have been a day late and a dollar short.  It’s almost as if the very online communications tactics that were used so effectively during the campaign have been forgotten.

The office of the president-elect could have tipped off his netroots supporters during the passed two weeks of Obama’s cabinet selections and economic team.  Fact sheets, like those created during the campaign, could have been compiled to make the case to his supporters and then used by his supporters to make the case to their own social networks.  This hasn’t happened and it worries me that the great promise of Obama’s online communications strategies will not be realized now that he is elected.

In this disappointment, there is a huge opportunity for Obama’s supporters to communicate back to their leadership and demand the same sort of transparency that existed in the campaign continue into the White House.  Boland points to online public affairs successes like OpenSecrets and Visualizing Earmarks as models by the public to keep elected officials in check.  That same sort organizing must continue.  Hopefully, it will also wake up the transition team to again communicate the strategies and policies of the Obama office.