Matt Ortega

The text messaging campaign that my former employer, It’s OUR Healthcare!, produced last October was nominated for a Golden Dot Award in the Best Mobile/Text Messaging Campaign. We lost to the Obama for America “HOPE” text messaging campaign. (However, we split even in the pledged delegates…)

Former colleague, local blogger and committed activist, Matt Lockshin, was the brains behind the campaign and deserves the most credit in making it as successful as it turned out. Lockshin gave an interview about the campaign — how we did it technologically and the vendors we used.

IOH set up the screen in Sacramento, about 150 feet from the door of the Capitol building. The screen, which Lockshin said was about 9′ by 12′, broadcast in close to real time SMS messages sent from supporters throughout the state of California. Because of the variety of groups represented in the IOH coalition — consumer advocates, senior citizens, labor groups, people of faith, and health advocates — SMS messages from many different perspectives were visible on the screen throughout the day. Smartly, the campaign also provided a live video feed of the screen on IOH’s website, so visitors to the site and press could see the text messages appear on the screen on the web. Video clips of the live feed are available here.

Watch archived clips of the streaming video and view the online-based demonstration here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 6, 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. The views expressed are of the author, and the author alone, and do not reflect the views of the Democratic National Committee.