microsites

A quick note on two things the online Right is doing now:

1. ReadWriteWeb points out that Rep. Randy Kuhl "is soliciting ideas for bills until July 18th. Kuhl will then choose his favorite 5 submissions and users will vote for the best, and the winning idea will be introduced on the floor of the US House of Representatives."   Rep. Kuhl has more information here and ideas can be submitted here.

It's nice to see a Republican doing something collaborative.  It could be more sophisticated, though.  For one thing, Rep. Kuhl should have gone directly to blogs to launch and advance this project.  He should make the submission process a bit more open (if not so open that you merely invite trolls).  He should focus it on agenda items that have a significant chance of both passing and moving the ideological ball forward (e.g., earmarks, transparency, etc). 

2. The RNC has launched a new site, Meet Barack Obama, where they'll basically be posting research and linking to their videos and microsites.   You can also participate in a poll about Barack Obama.  And donate to the RNC, of course. 

To be honest, I'm not really a fan of microsites.  They're usually pretty, rather than genuinely well-designed for infomation delivery; and while they might grab attention (and email addresses) in the very, very short term, they tend to be forgotten quickly.  They are "check the box" items, nice looking, but not terribly effective for communication.

That actually gets to a larger issue.  Large, bureaucratic organizations - business, political, campaign, or advocacy - generally are not very good at online communication for a few reasons. 

• Bureaucratic inertia prevents organizations from acting quickly - or at all - far too often. 
• Lawyers are now our front-line communicators.  Risk aversion leads organizations to check communication through the legal department before sending it out, leading to communication that sounds good to...lawyers.  Lawyers are paid to eliminate legal risk, not to communicate information effectively.
• Perverse incentives: The incentives of agents within organizations often does not align with the organization's larger goals.   The bigger the organization, the more potential perverse incentives exist.   That series of hurdles prevents a lot of clever ideas from seeing the light of day.

Rather than devoting so many resources to jumping through all of those hurdles, I think the Right is probably better served by outsourcing this kind of messaging to outlets who have a comparative advantage in messaging.