Background
- Met Prof. Lessig because I sought his endorsement when I ran for state rep in Williamson County.
- I convinced WilCo Democrats to focus on campaign finance reform as "the first issue."
- My primary opponent, John Bucy, took up the Campaign Finance Reform flag and ran with it - so we decided he'd run for office and I'd focus on activism.
- Worked with Prof. Lessig as a consultant on the New Hampshire Rebellion.
- Created Cartoon, did video, did website.
More Background
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Geek for State Rep!
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Campaigned almost
solely on CFR
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Frustration
- New Zealand
- My Issue Blocked By corruption.
Lessig'S MayOne Plan:
Let's Kick-start (sort of) at least half of $12M that we would need to "flip" 5 competitive House races in 2014
This will prime the pump for 2016, and make Congress aware that people care very deeply about this issue.
Inception: A timeline of events
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Last week of March: Prof. Lessig announces the MayOne.us kick-started SuperPAC, at TED Vancouver, setting the launch date to May 1, 2014.
- First week of April: Lessig tries to use Kickstarter(TM) to raise the money, however, Kickstarter and Lessig are unable to do so.
- Second week of April: Lessig's TED talk goes live on the Internet.
- Third week of April: Lessig emails me and asks me to build the site 14 days before the deadline.
- Quick caveat: I was not a web developer.
My Initial Reaction:
Creation
- Using the tools I was comfortable with (instead of what I really needed).
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Site ran on a single database which also hosted the application, FEC compliance information, targeting information, payment processing information, etc.
- No time to test. Was coding up to Midnight, April 30th.
Launch
- Site is live 12:01am May 1, 2016 EST.
- Get a few pledges.
- Lessig tweets, Tumblrs, and e-mails all those who signed up after the TED talk at 8:00am EST.
- 8:30am EST, we're already at $10,000.
- Prof. Lessig messages me: "It would be cool to break $100k the first day."
- 12:30pm EST: We break $100k.
- 11:59pm EST: We raise $250k.
Day 2:
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I wake up at 8:30 CST.
- The site is -gone.-
- Somewhere around the $330k mark, the server literally could not handle the influx of traffic and quit.
- I did not have the technical skill to fix this problem.
- Volunteers from the Internet came to our aid - the First Responders.
- Included software developers, the main developer for WordPress, Google Engineers, social media managers, volunteer wranglers...
Day 2 part 2:
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Around 3:30pm, I get dizzy/lightheaded.
- Blood pressure 174/128 (Hypertension Stage 2)
- Prof. Lessig orders me to the emergency room, I ask Aaron Lifshin to take over the site, which (thank goodness!) he does, while I go to the hospital.
The First Responders
- While I recover in the hospital:
- Separate the application for pledging from the database
- Move to a cloud-based, rather than hosted, solution (Google App Engine)
- Re-write the site using static web development tools (Jekyll) instead of WordPress (requires no database!)
- I get a crash course in web development.
The First Million
We reached the first million on May 13, 2014
Here's what that tells us:
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People CARE about Campaign Finance Reform.
- The pundits are wrong when they say it's a "snooze" issue - and notice how it's only the "pundits" who say that campaign finance reform bores people.
Stage 2:
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Added Team Pledge Pages
- Working with marketing (A/B testing, video sites)
- Started actually buying ads, hiring consultants & press people.
- Prof. Lessig is pressing the "Call Colbert" button as hard as he can.
- Working on creating viral content.
- Jason Alexander has already endorsed.
- At least two other celebrity endorsements that I know about (that I'm sorry, I can't tell you.)
Q & A & back to Q
Conception
By brianboyko
