Information Technology for the Politician

Information Technology for the Politician

Technology has a great impact on everything from how we hear about political events to even how we vote. Embracing technology and harnessing the power of new communication mediums through channels like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or podcasting websites may help one sway public opinion.

Through the clever use of technology, politicians have found generations of new potential voters. Candidates without online presence are at a disadvantage over those exploiting technologies to help them gain attention, money, support and votes. Therefore, Information technology is a major asset for a politician to use as a campaign tool.

The basic Information Technology a politician can use to campaign with are:

A Simple Website

A Website should serve as the campaign’s public front and the primary goal is to help build a supporter database by recruiting. No visitor to the site should leave without an opportunity to join and support the candidate. A Website’s look does matter a lot, since a well-designed layout should make a good first impression. Voters, bloggers and journalists ultimately come to a candidate’s site for information therefore it has to be accurate and up-to-date.

This enables the clients to follow the candidates campaign easily. The politicians case is presented in the strongest possible way, telling the candidate’s story through words, photos and video.

SMS Broadcast/Bulk Messages

SMS text messages are the quickest way to reach your audience which are easy to personalize to each contact. Bulk messaging is the sending of large numbers of SMS messages for delivery to mobile phone terminals. Politicians can use this service to send alerts, reminders and to market themselves to potential supporters.

Countries that may not have a vast internet coverage use text messaging (USSD) to reach out to potential supporters. There are software’s that have advanced features to assist in sending these messages and even scheduling specific times to send them.

Social Media

With half the world’s population on various social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, it wouldn’t be wise for a campaign team to ignore the social internet. These platforms allow for the potential supporters to directly chit chat with their respective candidates. Interacting with these politicians allows for potential supporters to ask questions regarding policies and other topics of concern so as help one decide who to vote for.

The same platforms also directly link campaigns with donors and volunteers therefore providing easy paths to distribute news, talking points, event invitations and appeals for time and money.

Data Analysis

The politicians campaign team gather information from the field regarding various political issues and the data is analyzed so as to pin-point voter patterns in past elections. The patterns help understand issues most relevant to the voters and the politicians can then create a message which appeals to the voters. Data analytics can help to better advertising campaign’s and also create better strategies to increase voters.

Depending on the voter’s responses, the collected data is fed to a database engine. This allows for better targeting of voters. The campaign team, media and relevant parties adopt data analytics in an attempt to predict the winners.

Accounting System

Transparency is important to a Candidates reputation as well as election officials and the public who have a right to know how much money was raised from whom and how it was spent. Information Technology has brought about software specifically made for Accounting purposes.

There is a need to not only keep track of all the money that’s coming and going, but you also need to prepare every transaction for the government reports.

Examples of such software are BackOffice and ISPolitical which are designed to track things like monetary contributions, miscellaneous income, expenses, loans and non-monetary donations. It has features of regular accounting software like printing checks, running bank reconciliations and keeping tabs on your bank balance. It also includes a full suite of reports, like Profit and Loss statements and cash flow reports.

 

 

Open Source Technology

Open Source Technology

Open source technology is an often-misused term; too often, users  think open source is synonymous with free. With the relatively recent rise of the Internet’s influence on production and development of software, open source has become a popular vehicle to obtain widespread use and support of some very popular software titles.

When youthful developers think of open source, programming becomes a form of art much less a painting and more like creating music by harmoniously working in collaboration towards a common objective with few licensing restrictions and more freedom to grow.

When companies think of open source, these days they think “business agility,” a quality they increasingly value above all others in the fast-changing marketplace.

The ability to create new applications quickly, reliably and economically is drawing businesses big and small to open source and emboldening them to use it for ever-larger projects, IT practitioners say.

Companies large and small have taken to open source as a way to increase collaboration, reduce development costs, provide a friendly platform for their products, and sell services. Billions of dollars of value has been created based on this simple structure. The adoption of open source software has become a cultural phenomenon. The basic facts regarding the growth of the open source movement are amazing.

Open source technology has spawned an open source culture among programmers and developers who embrace the open source philosophy. Many open source initiatives begin to spite the large corporations who dominate the markets with expensive, complicated, and over-commercialized software. In fact, many Linux developers are committed to producing software that rivals or even surpasses the flexibility and compatibility of such software giants as Microsoft, Apple, and IBM.

Most money made from open source software comes in the form of support for the software technology and its many additions, add-ons, and modifications that often ensue. Although most open source software is available to download free, license remains with the original creator of the software and does not transfer to anyone regardless of any modifications, improvements, or add-ons made to the open source software. Although free to download, the software is not free in the sense that the end user can do whatever he/she wants to it including selling it.

Cost savings may be only part of open source’s allure, but it’s still a big part, no matter what size the organization.

Enterprises have always customized packaged software such as ERP applications, except now, with open source, that customization is less expensive.

Conclusion

Although open source software is often free to download and use, open source licenses rarely transfer any ownership of the software to the end user or developer. Open source is not limited to software. Open source philosophies have been applied to everything from medicine to soft drink formulas. The result is higher commitment and even cult status among the developers and users of open source technologies.