About Political Gastronomica
Political Gastronomica is a discourse on technology and online activism - how the marketplace of governing and ideas is improving with the efficiencies of the Internet.
Author Sanford Dickert, former CTO of John Kerry for President Campaign, works with political campaigns, non-profits and private companies from the Fortune 500 to startups.
Dickert leverages online community engagement techniques and technical vision for brand and message management through effective application of social media and organizational processes.
Category Archives: Personal Thoughts
John Stewart: Why Campaigns are Better than Government
Listening to yesterday’s The Daily Show, I watched Aneesh Chopra speak with John Stewart about the challenges government faces with “legacy systems”, “legacy databases” and “20 year efforts” and watched John’s eyes glaze over. Let’s see if we can explain the problem. Continue reading
Posted in Personal Thoughts, Political Tech
Tagged John Stewart, Software Development, The Daily Show
2 Comments
Save NPR funding!
So, keeping with the mission of the CPB and the overall effort to keep a free-and-fair programming, the “deficit hawks” are going after essentially $32M in that grant. The good that NPR and the CPB does for our country – especially across the rural parts of our country – is incredibly valuable. When are the Congressional “deficit hawks” going to go after the real portion of the pie that is gauging us? Continue reading
Posted in Mitzvahs, Personal Thoughts, Political Thoughts
Tagged Center for Public Broadcasting, Federal Budget, Federal Deficit, NPR
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Speed of a Meme: Is all there is but twitter and Facebook?
But as long as the networks exist – and they may be for a little while longer – these issues will continue to grow. The utility of twitter with its API and ubiquity on all mobile phone platforms (both smart phones and normal) and the thrall of Facebook to our information-hungry communities combined with the social network graph and the APIs that allow for even further fine-tuning of our interests when we need them – this is a challenge that governments both here and abroad are going to need to address. Continue reading
Posted in Personal Thoughts
Tagged @acarvin, @anncurry, @brianstelter, @davidclinchnews, #Egypt, #realtimepub, #SWM11, Facebook, speed of memes, twitter
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Creating the incentives to accomplish long-term government goals
ith the advent of social games generating revenue and attention during the off-hours of our lives and encroaching on our working hours (tell me you have not been itching to play your Mafia Wars or Farmville on your iPhone today), can we take lessons from the techniques of these entertainments to create new incentives to bring about the change we seek? Continue reading
Posted in Personal Thoughts, Political Thoughts
Tagged incentives, linkedin, long-term governance, Supernova, Supernova 2010
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Scandalous! Obama’s speech to children is about the R word!
we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed. Continue reading
Posted in Personal Thoughts, Political Thoughts
Tagged Education Speech, President Obama, Right Wing Hate
1 Comment