Politics 2.0: Elect Susie Flynn

9 million children in America lack health insurance. Children’s Defense Fund wants you to do something about it—not just feel sad. By harnessing the power of people, we are trying to give this issue the fuel to ignite mass action and make politicians listen.


Results (3 months into our campaign)

Stage 1: Growing a Citizen Army from 3,000 to 20,000+
By courting the attentions of influencer segments—Mommy Bloggers, Youth/College, Educator/Health Advocates, Faith-Based Activists, DC Elite/Politico Insiders, NetRoots, as well as Traditional Mainstream Media—we boosted our supporter ranks from 3,000 email subscribers to almost 20,000 Susie soldiers.

(A) Amplified the conversation through chat rooms, blogs, and
dinner tables.

• Over 420,000 Google search results link to ElectSusie.com
• 20,000 Web activists and 1,000 friends across MySpace and Facebook
• 60,000+ unique visitors to the Web site, mostly referred by word-of-mouth
• 160,000+ pageviews
• High conversion rate—30% of visitors also signed our petition
• Over 800 letters of support to Susie Flynn
• 30,000+ viral video viewings on sites like YouTube
• 160,000+ brand minutes engaged with electsusie.com and her YouTube channel

Lacking budget, we exploited the viral rewards of every possible “earned media” opportunity: press coverage, email pass-alongs, social networks pages, blogs, YouTube video, and OOH to garner attentions.

B) Provoke More News Media Coverage of This Important Issue
• Over 26.5 million PR impressions valued at $600,000

Stage 2: Activating the Citizen Army
C) Expect Increased Pressure on Elected Officials at Local and National Levels
Within a month of launch, CDF secured the support of Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA) who introduced the All Healthy Children Act (HR 1688), which is currently pending congressional review. Web site visitation and signatures are highest in the Washington, DC metro area.

Susie is well on her way to agitate the willing public to influence legislation. If successful, 9 million children will be guaranteed health insurance by the end of 2007.

Sign her petition @ website and en Espanol

Watch her videos @ YouTube

Make "friends" with Susie Flynn
@ MySpace
@ Facebook
@ Care2

Review: Spiderman 3

I just saw Spidey 3 and enjoyed it overall (though at 2h15min, it's a bit long). One of the interesting plot points to me was the backstory for Sandman [different in the movie than the Marvel backstory]. Essentially, he was forced into thievery to pay for his daughter's pricey health care. If only modern superheo Susie Flynn had been around, Uncle Ben may have been around to kick some sense into Peter before ... well, I won't spoil the movie. Let's just say I like Mr. Parker best in all his combed-hair, nerdy glory.

A few other general thoughts following the first of the summer popcorn sequels:

- Complexity: The TV renaissance means that viewers are accustomed to handling multiple storylines + characters, but these are often introduced and explored over 12+ hours. While complexity can be beneficial in entertainment (Steven Johnson has great thoughts on this in "Everything Bad is Good For You"), sometimes, less is more - especially when it comes down to quantity vs. quality.

- Intermissions: Faster DVD release dates and web video have changed the way we view movies in the theater; the big screen is still great for big-budget action bonanzas, but I wasn't the only one squirming in my seat two-thirds of the way through the movie. Why don't theaters have intermissions? Most other popular, long-format types of entertainment have breaks (theater, orchestra, set breaks, sports half-times ...). Movie theaters in the French-speaking part of Switzerland used to arbitrarily stop the movie halfway through so everyone could go out and smoke; couldn't theaters and studios work together to introduce thoughtful breaks? In a time-shifted world, why not give people a breather?

- Concessions: Why aren't there healthier options? Most of us really just want something to do with our hands - why not a box of cherrios and a Vitamin water? We should be able to have more choices than solid corn (aka popcorn) or liquid corn (aka soda). Granted, corn is cheap and therefore a high margin item, but movie theaters need to differentiate and perhaps sacrifice some profit at the concession stand if it means more filled seats.

Planning Tool: The Budget Graph

Now that you've paid your taxes, see where they're going onThe Budget Graph. While you could get that information on the government's OMB site, the folks at the budget graph have done the heavy lifting for you (and also added a few graphics to hold your attention). You can search by branch or by governmental department and find out how the total funds compare to the previous year.

For example, if you select "Health and Human Services," you see that "Administration for Children and Families" was allocated $12.329 billion, a 10% decrease from last year (that's a loss of ~$1.4 B). A pretty significant cut, and all the more reason to support Susie Flynn and CDF (Digg her here).

Meanwhile, the FDA is getting $1.641 B, a 10% increase (a gain of a mere $151 million). This increase starts to feel small in light of the fact that only 1.3% of imported foods are inspected and many are found to be tainted.

All in all, a cool tool (though the site seems to be a bit slow at time of posting).