Comment Re:Dean does not control what volunenteers do... (Score 1) 432
I would really love to agree with you. But I checked with the Dean campaign, and they admitted to the mistake. This did come from them.
They didn't know the person they contracted with would pass off the order to a spammer.
A lot of people in the e-mail world have the same problem. You have a budget. You get two bids. One is 1,000 times higher than the other. That's what it costs to manage a true double opt-in system.
You've heard from ISPs here (look for the one who responded to a Dean denial with the word BULLSHIT) about the costs of managing double opt-in. He said he sometimes sends addresses to those he's sending for and demands detailed information on them?
That takes time. IT takes a human's time. And a human's time is going to cost money. A lot of money, compared with a computer's time.
So the idea that someone in the Dean campaign screwed up is plausible. The fact that the contract was ended immediately is plausible.
The question I want answered is, what should the Dean campaign do to make sure this doesn't happen again? Remember, this is mainly a volunteer effort. The state organizations are, on the whole, autonomous. So are the other volunteer groups, like Seniors4dean. Even Deanspace, their programming force, is autonomous.
This is the necessary risk you take when you "let go" of the message, when you give people responsibility. Someone is going to screw up.
How would you do this if you were the Dean campaign? What processes and procedures would you set up for the delivery of e-mail on the campaign's behalf, that would both empower the volunteers (necessary) and keep you out of this kind of trouble (also necessary).
Put yourself in their shoes, and offer solutions. They will be heard.
They didn't know the person they contracted with would pass off the order to a spammer.
A lot of people in the e-mail world have the same problem. You have a budget. You get two bids. One is 1,000 times higher than the other. That's what it costs to manage a true double opt-in system.
You've heard from ISPs here (look for the one who responded to a Dean denial with the word BULLSHIT) about the costs of managing double opt-in. He said he sometimes sends addresses to those he's sending for and demands detailed information on them?
That takes time. IT takes a human's time. And a human's time is going to cost money. A lot of money, compared with a computer's time.
So the idea that someone in the Dean campaign screwed up is plausible. The fact that the contract was ended immediately is plausible.
The question I want answered is, what should the Dean campaign do to make sure this doesn't happen again? Remember, this is mainly a volunteer effort. The state organizations are, on the whole, autonomous. So are the other volunteer groups, like Seniors4dean. Even Deanspace, their programming force, is autonomous.
This is the necessary risk you take when you "let go" of the message, when you give people responsibility. Someone is going to screw up.
How would you do this if you were the Dean campaign? What processes and procedures would you set up for the delivery of e-mail on the campaign's behalf, that would both empower the volunteers (necessary) and keep you out of this kind of trouble (also necessary).
Put yourself in their shoes, and offer solutions. They will be heard.
