What the Apple iPad Means For Politics and Campaigns
As Huffington Post Tech and Innovations Editor Jose Antonio Vargas says regarding Apple’s launch of the iPad device, “It’s the Content Stupid”. The device itself is a pretty slick and relatively affordable content platform that campaigns should become hyper-familiar with. Vargas hits it right on. Here’s what the Operation Red State team sees for the iPad in Politics.
- The iPad (and the iPhone/iTouch for the matter) are perfectly suited to have custom apps for field data gathering, door knocking, and polling. We haven’t seen much attention paid to this area of app development yet but it will come. We want to see a google maps mashup that can assign door knocking grids to campaign staff/volunteers that allows for simple data point recovery in real-time like: ”no one home”, “definite YES vote”, “definite NO vote”, “approximate talk time with voter”, “undecided” , etc. Imagine sending out 5 volunteers to hit 5 grids in an evening, getting a 70% “at home” rate and knowing that of those 70% hits…that 65% said “definite YES”. ORS will build this if a campaign or campaigns fund it FYI.
- The iPad is large enough for campaign operatives to engage people in the field and have them touch the screen to answer questions.
- The iPad has an always on wireless data option that brings a nearly universal metro area connection for real time data transmission via the cloud back to campaign HQ.
- The iPad is a convenient device to bring along to house party and other fundraisers for people to sign up for your updates…or more importantly CONTRIBUTE to your campaign. Mobile optimized donation pages are a big plus and we don’t see too much of that on smart phones.
What other uses to do you see for the iPad in the coming years politically speaking?
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