John Orr: Gulchie Awards

2007 Denver Municipal Election: Gulchie Awards

Tue, 01 May 2007 12:54:02 GMT

Today is election day. Unlike 2003 this election has been a pretty dull affair. Coyote Gulch thinks that candidates and voters are exhausted after the 2006 General election. Mayor Hickenlooper's popularity scared off challengers, as did Dennis Gallagher's campaigning prowess. Apparently no one wanted to put out the effort necessary to knock off incumbents or everyone is happy with the job they're doing. Incumbent councilors also generally had an easy time of it.

Each election in Denver (since 2003) is marked by the awarding of Gulchies. Gulchies are awarded in each race. We recognize the best use of Internet technologies by a campaign. We do not emphasize design since that might turn out to be a award for the deepest pockets. Instead, we judge the campaign based on various criteria.

Criteria for a Gulchie:

First up, does the campaign have a website? Many campaigns this election do but some don't. Coyote Gulch found 29 candidate sites this cycle. In some cases the effort seemed to depend on how much of a race the candidate had. For example Mayor Hickenlooper pretty much recycled (in the green spirit we're sure) his website from 2003. Meanwhile Dennis Gallagher set the 'minimalist' tone this year. There were exceptions however. Judy Montero's website was the most complete of the election even though she didn't face too stiff a challenge.

Email lists are a great way to reach out. Every campaign should have one. Since email skills are becoming pervasive it's an easy way to reach voters. Lists can be used to coordinate schedule changes, inform on the issues and ask for support. Don't assume that people that sign up for email information are automatically supporters of your campaign. Keep one e-mail list and assign someone to keep it current.

Weblogs have still not caught on in the local elections. Each time we hear candidate complaints about the lack of, or inaccurate coverage in the news media, we're tempted to remind campaigns that they can publish their own items, as often as they want and generate RSS feeds. If there is no weblog, include short and current content. Position papers are not an interesting read usually and a snippet of a candidate position is more accessible. Also post links to longer reads.

Each website needs to make it easy to donate online. Small donors are a great resource to tap and many of these donors use the Web. Fourteen campaigns took online donations this cycle.

Navigation should be straightforward. Make it easy to find various parts of the website. Label buttons intuitively and accurately. Always make it easy to return to the home page.

The website is a great place to post video and audio, including TV ads if the campaign has enough dough for a TV or Radio buy. With YouTube each candidate can show an inclusive attitude, that is, no matter what type of modern computer is in use the video can be viewed. Similarly .MP3 audio format is the inclusive choice.

Include a photo gallery and a photo on every page. You're trying to connect with humans and photo images can help.

Make it easy to find event information. Include addresses and contact phone numbers. Keep this content current. Again, you're trying to connect with people, help them find you.

Websites are not car dealer showrooms. Back off the hard-sell tactics. Many visitors are not supporters and too much selling might keep them from coming back.

A list of endorsements can add credibility.

Strive to present a confident, humble image.

2007 Denver Municipal Election Gulchie Awards:

Mayor - John Hickenlooper

Auditor - Dennis Gallagher

Clerk and Recorder - Jacob Werther

Council District 1 - Rick Garcia

Council District 2 - Jeanne Faatz

Council District 3 - Paul Lopez

Council District 4 - Peggy Lehman

Council District 5 - Mitchell Poindexter

Council District 7 - Chris Nevitt

Council District 8 - Darrell Watson

Council District 9 - Judy Montero

Council District 10 - Jeanne Robb

Council District 11 - Michael Hancock

Council At-Large - Carol Boigon

We want to give special recognition to Judy Montero for her weblog, Carla Madison for the video of the Raging Grannies, Greg Rasheed for his video introduction, Mark Roggeman for design and Carol Campbell for the print a sign application.

Thanks to those that nominated websites for the awards and thanks to the judges. In many contests the choices were tough.

Here are the Gulchies for May 2003, August 2004, November 2004, May 2005, November 2005, August 2006 and November 2006.

Category: Denver May 2007 Election

Gulchies

Tue, 03 May 2005 12:09:23 GMT

Vote today, you crazy kids! Here's the link to Coyote Gulch's coverage of Tuesday's General Municipal Election. Additional links and coverage from Fail the Jail, and Safe Denver.com, DenverGov and the Denver Public Library. You can find the address for your polling place at DenverMaps or download a .pdf of locations from the Election commission. The winner of the Gulchie Award for the Referred Question 1A election is Fali the Jail.org. The vastly underfunded movement to stop the new justice center won over Safe Denver.com. Fail the Jail kept their content more current and provided an email list. Their website sought to inform while the Safe Denver website seemed to only be there to recruit supporters and collect donations. Fail the Jail provided the ballot language and links to informal polls on the issue. Safe Denver posted links to all three commercials. Fail the Jail did not have enough dough to run commercials in the first place so the two sites could not be compared on this issue. Fail the Jail did put up video from a community rally. The video provided by both sides was in QuickTime format showing an inclusive attitude for all desktop computer users. Both websites were well organized with easy to follow navigation. Neither campaign used a weblog in the election. Coyote Gulch thinks that this was a huge mistake. What better way to get the word out without having to depend on the Rocky and the Post? Safe Denver was the more attractive site adding to the well funded image. Coyote Gulch failed to find an online presence for Referred Question 1B so there is no Gulchie in that election. Category: Denver May 2005 Election

Tue, 12 Oct 2004 23:57:36 GMT

You have a chance to be part of a huge upswelling in people voting. Please, if you're registered and haven't already voted, get to your polling place on Tuesday.

Tue, 06 May 2003 10:22:15 GMT

2003 Denver Municipal Election - Gulchie Awards Winners of a Gulchie in each election race: Mayor - John Hickenlooper Auditor - Dennis Gallagher Election Commission - Susan Rogers Council At-Large - Jim Raughton Council District 1 - Rick Garcia Council District 2 - Joe Ventola Council District 3 - Rosemary Rodriguez Council District 4 - Peggy Lehman Council District 5 - Marcus Pachner Council District 6 - Paula VanDusen Council District 7 - Kathleen MacKenzie Council District 8 - Elbra Wedgeworth Council District 9 - Judy Montero Council District 10 - Jeanne Robb Council District 11 - Gloria Holliday

Sun, 04 May 2003 14:57:29 GMT

2003 Denver Municipal Election - Gulchie Awards On Tuesday I will announce the Gulchie awards for this year's general election. There will be one winner in each election race. I want to thank everyone that took the opportunity to offer up nominations. Gulchies are awarded to the campaign that uses website, e-mail, and weblog most effectively. The use of Internet and Web technologies reflect the candidate's understanding of technology as it applies to running the city. In the 21st century voters should be wary of a candidate that does not have a good grounding in technology. This is the area where we in the city can increase productivity and delivery of services. Technology can also help to democratize city goverment by enabling increasing participation by our stakeholders. Candidates that emphasize the use of technology that is standards compliant reflect the type of forward thinking necessary in our new world. Website graphics design, while important, is not the determining factor in the Gulchie. Coyote Gulch is looking at the websites with an eye towards functional rather than professional look and feel. Therefore a campaign can win without a large budget for a web design firm. The use of e-mail effectively is the second category we look at. E-mail is a very inexpensive and effective means for getting out the word to supporters and others. The third area would be the use of a weblog (chronologically ordered website). Weblogs are a threaded discussion as opposed to e-mail which are unthreaded messages. We want to hear from you candidates in your own voice but we can't always afford the time to come to events. The links on weblogs to other weblogs and content on the Internet is a new type of conversation amongst groups. Unfortunately no campaign used this technology to reach the voters in this election. All campaigns in this election get a bad grade for ignoring this opportunity. I talked to several candidates that lamented the lack of coverage from the Denver dailies, especially if they were not in the mayoral race. Some supporters add that their candidate is the most personable, one on one. These are the areas where a weblog can help you. What are the specifics? Website Websites should not be so busy that it is hard to find information. Websites should be easy to navigate, frames should not be used. Give supporters an opportunity to contribute to the campaign online. TV ads should be posted online in enough file formats to allow all computer users to view them. This shows an inclusive attitude. Make it easy to find event information. Include addresses and contact phone numbers. Keep this content current. Include short and current content. Position papers are not an interesting read usually and a snippet of a candidate position is more accessible. Websites are not car dealer showrooms. Back off the hard-sell tactics. Many visitors are not supporters and too much selling might keep them from coming back. Strive to present a confident, humble image. E-mail Don't assume that people that sign up for e-mail information are automatically supporters of your campaign. It's OK to include fundraising events in e-mail but also include community events (very important) along with campaign news. A short note from the candidate is a good approach. Avoid using e-mail just for fundraising and recruiting volunteers. Events in e-mail should track with the event information on the website. Use e-mail for clarification on event details if locations or times change. Keep one e-mail list and assign someone to keep it current. Weblogs No campaign used a weblog this year. That'll change going forward. Several candidates in the 2004 Presidential campaign are already on board with a weblog.

Thu, 24 Apr 2003 02:37:49 GMT

2003 Denver Municipal Election - Gulchie Awards On Tuesday I will announce the Gulchie awards for this year's general election. There will be one winner in each election race. I want to thank everyone that took the opportunity to offer up nominations. Gulchies are awarded to the campaign that uses website, e-mail, and weblog most effectively. The use of Internet and Web technologies reflect the candidate's understanding of technology as it applies to running the city. In the 21st century voters should be wary of a candidate that does not have a good grounding in technology. This is the area where we in the city can increase productivity and delivery of services. Technology can also help to democratize city goverment by enabling increasing participation by our stakeholders. Candidates that emphasize the use of technology that is standards compliant reflect the type of forward thinking necessary in our new world. Website graphics design, while important, is not the determining factor in the Gulchie. Coyote Gulch is looking at the websites with an eye towards functional rather than professional look and feel. Therefore a campaign can win without a large budget for a web design firm. The use of e-mail effectively is the second category we look at. E-mail is a very inexpensive and effective means for getting out the word to supporters and others. The third area would be the use of a weblog (chronologically ordered website). Weblogs are a threaded discussion as opposed to e-mail which are unthreaded messages. What is evolving on the web are hundreds of thousands of people writing to the world. We want to hear from you candidates in your own voice but we can't always afford the time to come to events. The links on weblogs to other weblogs and content on the Internet is a new type of conversation amongst groups. Unfortunately no campaign used this technology to reach the voters in this election. All campaigns in this election get a bad grade for ignoring this opportunity. I talked to several candidates that lamented the lack of coverage from the Denver dailies, especially if they were not in the mayoral race. Some supporters add that their candidate is the most personable, one on one. These are the areas where a weblog can help you. What are the specifics? Website Websites should not be so busy that it is hard to find information. Websites should be easy to navigate, frames should not be used. Give supporters an opportunity to contribute to the campaign online. TV ads should be posted online in enough file formats to allow all computer users to view them. This shows an inclusive attitude. Make it easy to find event information. Include addresses and contact phone numbers. Keep this content current. Include short and current content. Position papers are not an interesting read usually and a snippet of a candidate position is more accessible. Websites are not car dealer showrooms. Back off the hard-sell tactics. Many visitors are not supporters and too much selling might keep them from coming back. Strive to present a confident, humble image. E-mail Don't assume that people that sign up for e-mail information are automatically supporters of your campaign. It's OK to include fundraising events in e-mail but also include community events (very important) along with campaign news. A short note from the candidate is a good approach. Avoid using e-mail just for fundraising and recruiting volunteers. Events in e-mail should track with the event information on the website. Use e-mail for clarification on event details if locations or times change. Keep one e-mail list and assign someone to keep it current. Weblogs No campaign used a weblog this year. That'll change going forward. Several candidates in the 2004 Presidential campaign are already on board with a weblog. One e-mail account from each campaign. Fair to list fundraisers but separte them from community events. Don't assume that e-mail list subscribers are loyal supporters. Online contributions paypal extra step. Yahoo join extra step. Where are your ads online Don? Events easy to get to, don't let 'em go stale. Contact names and phone numbers. Keep content short and fresh - weblog model. Multiple media formats == inclusion. Standards based, open source. Reflects candidate understanding of IT. Area that promises the most for productivity gains. Don't pitch everyone with a hard sell. (Thomas Zavaras). Gallagher is smiling right at you smack in the middle. Attractiveness is important. Colors, Casey's get my attention.