Scoop - Open Source Software
Scoop is an Open Source project used by many organizations to set up online communities. It is the software behind the popular Kuro5hin.org and many others. It's the software being used by Wesley Clark's campaign this year. Thanks to Doc Searls for the link.
If you read Coyote Gulch for political news, and you work with or advise candidates, here's your chance to be a hero and help any campaign get up and running quickly. The major candidates in last spring's Denver Municipal Election all used websites effectively.
Of course if your candidate has unlimited funds they can hire a firm to do their website and there is nothing wrong with that. But if you're on a shoestring or have a very small staff Open Source software can help fill the bill and make it look like you're a big money campaign. A smart web design firm might use the Open Source software to lower costs to their client.
Howard Dean's campaign developed their own software called DeanSpace hosted on SourceForge and also Open Source. Small budget candidates can get Radio Userland for $40 and some inexpensive hosting from someone like Forethought.net and be up and running in a couple of hours.
I should note that no one took my advice to start a weblog in last spring's election here in Denver.  Most of the candidates complained about the lack of coverage of the election by the local papers and TV and none of them published a weblog to get out the word on a regular basis. Go figure.
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