POPVOX question

[Johnny_B_Goode]

Here is the text and activity of the bill so far. The bill actually has a republican co sponsor David Cicilline of RI.
https://popvox.com/bills/us/114/hr410

Here is my letter I wrote to the Democratic members of the house. PopVox is tool for constituents to write their congress critter quick and easily. PopVox is run by the Democratic party.

I oppose Pause for Safety Act of 2015 because we already have laws in all 50 states that allow law enforcement to temporally seize firearms of people who are a danger to themselves or other people in the community. This bill is ripe for abuse. Moreover, funding to enforce this bill is not an effective use of our tax dollars. Every neighborhood has a nut job who has called 911 anonymously 100's of times. We do not need another tool for the neighborhood bully to make their neighbors miserable

 

[hso]

PopVox is run by the Democratic party.

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof."

Please present the proof that PopVox is run by the Democratic party in the face of data to the contrary.
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/popvox
http://www.privco.com/private-company/popvox
http://www.prweb.com/releases/POPVOX/Nov2010/prweb4810454.htm
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220262
http://www.fastcompany.com/1816285/fast-talk-how-popvox-gets-congress-listen

 

[PBR Streetgang]

What happened to innocent till proven guilty?

 

[Johnny_B_Goode]

Ok here is your proof. PopVox is a tool for democratic staffers to see how the public is reacting to a given bill. Republican staffers are not privy to this information unless they create an account and view the info just like we do.

"POPVOX has come a long way since cofounder and CMO Rachna Choudhry nervously called her mother to tell her the website had launched. Now, nearly 2,000 House Democratic staffers can log onto their intranet and see the opinions of the public and advocacy groups posted on POPVOX."

http://tech.co/rachna-choudhry-popvox-house-of-representatives-2012-09

"Building a non-partisan, neutral platform that allows individuals to communicate with their members of Congress was easier said than done, though, and she found DC somewhat difficult due to its zero sum attitudes. However, the entrepreneurial community gave her support when she needed it, and success was at the end of her road; the House Democrats adopted her POPVOX API"

http://tech.co/rachna-choudhry-went-zero-entrepreneur-dcs-help-2013-12

Give your republican congress critter a call to get their opinion of popvox. Or you can swallow the koolaide poured out to you by the liberal media.

 

[Davek1977]

Sorry, but I don't ever see HSO "drinking the liberal koolaid" and his posts are typically right on the money.


Furthermore, its customary to use to "quote" function, or at very least, quotation marks when using language in a post that is not your own.

 

[hso]

This is a valuable enough discussion to warrant a thread in Activism Discussion. If a source of information or a tool is accused of bias we should try to get to the facts of the question so we know whether or not we're using a dependable internet resource.

 

[hso]

Ok, so I sent an email to my Rep's office this morning asking if they used POPVOX and if they thought there was any biax in POPVOX. Considering he's part of the Duncan East TN Republican dynasty I should get a clear answer back.

 

[wojownik]

I know of a number of county republican party organizations that use PopVox. I have also met with GOP Hill staffers that use PopVox on their iPads.

PopVox is not biased in and of itself, IMHO. It's seems that Democratic staffers tend to be a bit quicker on the tech trends than some of their GOP counterparts. So the early adopters have been heavier on one side of the aisle. Just a fact of life LOL. GOP was very slow to comprehend twitter, youtube and the rest of social media too just a few years back too.

 

[Johnny_B_Goode]

It is not that anyone can log on to see how voters are reacting to any bill but only Democrats can use the entire system. Once you create a popvox account they have enough information to find out what party you are affiliated with and anything else they want to know. It's not that popvox is not everything it is represented to be. The problem with popvox is only the Democrats in the house can use the entire database. I am sure most of you know data mining is a powerful tool. Just in simplistic terms I can see how that is a tremendous advantage.

The staff of our senator here in NC told me to use Popvox to find and read bills. But to actually contact my congress critters use the critters contact page.

 

[hso]

only Democrats can use the entire system.

Where is that documented?

This statement in the article you linked doesn't mean that ONLY Democratic staffers can do this. The video specifically says POPVOX is "neutral, non-partisan". The POPVOX speaker goes on to say that they guarantee that all emails go to the citizen's congress critter. Ms. Choudhry is speaking to a Dem group and that the House Dems have signed onto the POPVOX Pro commercial service and that those Dem staffers are getting direct feed through that paid service, just like any paying customer can. I think this is a question of the source of the news and the audience that the video was recorded at.

Now, nearly 2,000 House Democratic staffers can log onto their intranet and see the opinions of the public and advocacy groups posted on POPVOX.

This one is pretty valuable in finding out if POPVOX has an exclusive deal with the Dem party, as JBG thinks, or if the Dem party just paid for a pay service available to any org like the Rep party, or NRA, or ...

 

[wojownik]

This is just an amazing claim. I've just visited 30 county GOP sites across the country that list POPVOX as a constituent resource. Republic staffers can log in as well, if they opt into the service. This is more about techie vs. luddite, early adopter vs. latecomer, than it is about (D) vs. (R). Again, the R's have been woefully behind the tech curve compared to the D's.

Here's a thought - instead of looking for the conspiracy, how about getting pro-2a groups to utilize tools like POPVOX. "Advocacy organizations, trade associations, and corporations pay a monthly fee for POPVOX widgets and analytics enabling networks to write Congress through embedded POPVOX tools, displaying dynamic legislative content." Sounds like pretty good tool for NRA-ILA, NSSF and others to be using ...

Are the founders of the company more D than R? Yes, undeniably. Their CEO (Marci Harris) worked for California Dem Pete Stark on the hill. Has this blocked GOP users from full access. No. There is no evidence of that. Is the POPVOX company only working with Democrat initiatives. No, not at all. In fact, PopVox and the Republican fundraising company CMDI teamed up on a tech initiative about 18 months ago, and PopVox's co-founder (Choudry) even served as a panel judge evaluating promising new tech ideas for grassroots Republican initiatives.

I'm actually feeling like this is OT, because of the whole D vs. R slant of this discussion - it would be more interesting to see if POPVOX would welcome a firearms advocacy group, firearms manufacturers and/or industry associations as customers for their data services. If not, then there would be something on-topic to holler about.

I'm sure MDA and the antis are using this tool. The pro-2a crowd should seriously take a look, if they have not already.

(I have no affiliation with POPVOX at all. I just don't like wrong or partial info).

 

[hso]

Ironically, Marci Harris' father is a conservative TN county mayor and her mom was a Dem party stalwart (probably only slightly less "house divided" than Vol vs. Auburn).

 

[Johnny_B_Goode]

I posted the link earlier post #4. Click on it and read it for yourself. If you don't believe the link I am not going to twist your arm. The article clearly says she raised the money to start PopVox through the Democratic party. If you think the Democratic party is going to share analytics generated by PopVox with the Republican party you bumped your head.

If you search Rachna Choudhry you will see she is very active in the democratic party and a bleeding heart liberal. Huffington Post has given her a soap box and she is using it to be annoying to our new congress.

If you all want to attack me without reading the links I post this is a dead discussion. Life is to short to deal with people who cover their ears and say say no it is not true.

 

[hso]

Building a non-partisan, neutral platform that allows individuals to communicate with their members of Congress was easier said than done, though, and she found DC somewhat difficult due to its zero sum attitudes. However, the entrepreneurial community gave her support when she needed it, and success was at the end of her road; the House Democrats adopted her POPVOX API.

That says that she got the funding to start from the "entrepreneurial community" which means Tim O'Reilly in Silicon Valley. They're saying that the mobile ap was first adopted by the Democrats making POPVOX a success. That's not the same as saying the Democratic Party started and runs POPVOX. It means, as so many have pointed out, that they were the early adopter while the Republican party drags its feet on adopting new techniques and technologies, like POPVOX.

This is beginning to look like a disagreement in interpretation of the same material. The endless "half full/half empty" conflict. Those who interpret negatively what others ascribe a neutral or positive interpretation to aren't likely to agree. The preponderance of opinion may be wrong and the minority opinion may be correct, but more information is needed than opinion and perspective.

 

[wojownik]

As HSO said, the article that was linked (and the YouTube video of the co-founder's presentation) clearly tell a different story - they bootstrapped, got some angel investment, and found some early adopters - and those early customers turned out to be on the Dem side.

On the other hand, no less than Heritage Action (since 2011) and the Heritage Foundation use POPVOX for activism and research, respectively. These twin conservative organizations apparently have full access to POPVOX.

POPVOX has helped develop a number of apps and widgets used by conservative groups, including fundraisers, over the past year to 18 months.

As noted earlier, POPVOX is used by several state and county GOP organizations, as do the offices of several GOP congressmen that I'm aware of.

To me, this is not about the technology or the company - its about adoption and innovation. Anti-2a groups and the other side of the aisle are very saavy about social media and these types of web-based tools. The GOP side (at least on the national level) is moving at a glacial pace by comparison.

If POPVOX was playing any games with access to info, they would have been exposed by now in a DC heartbeat ... instead, a growing number of conservative activists are actually using the tools and datasets.

 

[hso]

I can see if the internet information out there points out that the first big customers for POPVOX were the Democratic Party and their internet info org it might look like the party "paid" for POPVOX. Like any other subscription customer pays for a service (more and more software is being marketed as a monthly subscription service to cloud based servers) it supports the service, but that's just modern capitalism at work.