Matt Dunne’s Vermont’s Future website demonstrates the right way to maintain a website that complements the campaign website. First, it is clear that the site is Matt Dunne’s, with both a prominent link and video on the website’s front page. Next, the site focuses on issues facing Vermonters, and is designed to begin a conversation that Matt sees as extending beyond the campaign.
Of course, Rich Tarrant’s use of the website Vermontsenaterace.com in 2006 demonstrated the exact wrong way to maintain a website in a campaign and prompted my interest in asking the candidates to pledge not to engage in anonymous internet tactics. The Tarrant site was both anonymous and, instead of discussing issues, began as an “objective” look at the campaign horserace that morphed into a source of attacks on the Sanders campaign.
So it is great to see the Dunne campaign keeping a companion website that is designed to create a space for dialogue around our state’s future. Needless to say, it was easy for Matt to take the pledge, and he expanded the discussion to differentiate between items posted by him and items posted by his campaign. My initial interest in the pledge was not to determine specific authorship of a post, as long as anything posted by a campaign is clearly marked as coming from that campaign. But it should come as no surprise given his knowledge of technology issues that Matt refined the conversation. Check out the clip to hear Matt highlight some of the issues people have forwarded on Vermont’s Future and then visit the site.
Part 1 HERE
Stay tuned for Part 3 of the Matt Dunne interview
[Note: No endorsement implied. Just continuing the VTblogosphereTV tradition of showcasing the qualities of the guest.]