I've gone through multiple blogrolls on other sites and culled the inactive or defunct blogs.
At the moment, I've only included blogs, but I'll be adding a second list of online grassroots organizations for Obama --- of which there are many doing great work and with great websites. (Many of them are state or local oriented.)
I just wanted to share a new blog I've discovered: "Freelance Obama," written by Justin Allen ("colonials21"), a 24-year-old New Yorker who, since October, has been a full-time volunteer for the Obama campaign in New Hampshire.
Justin blogs about his adventures and canvassing trips across New Hampshire, his thoughts on the state of the race, and some tips about being more effective in the field.
I've happily added Justin's blog to the Livefeed. Welcome to One Million Strong!
If anyone has some other blogs, DailyKos users, or others with RSS feeds that should be added, let me know!
It's already been a week since we officially launched One Million Strong. I thought I would offer a quick update on how we're doing. I'm happy to report that we're still growing. Here are the StatCounter stats:
We're also now up to 124 registered users. We're growing very nicely. This is partly my way of making the case that you do have an audience here and to encourage you to post those diaries!
Promises:
I've been trying to make good on all the promises I made in the first week about new features. I did add a Voter Registration widget, for the moment down in the bottom right corner of the page, from Rock the Vote.
I'm still working on an updated blogroll that will be linked through the frontpage banner. Oh, and another banner link to a page of links . Those are easy. I should be able to set that up today.
Keep your suggestions coming! We're still tinkering and making changes to the site. We're also still soliciting contributions for a logo. I have a couple people potentially working on this, but let me know if you have some ideas. Thanks!
Email Updates: I would also strongly recommend signing up for our daily email updates. You'll get an email once a day, summing up the latest diaries on or promoted to the frontpage. It's actually really handy.
Check out his website for more of his designs. Great stuff. There are some pretty iconic images. The Obama campaign hired Nolan to produce its official NYC rally poster. Take a look at another one after the jump....
Imagine being able to know the latest of what's going on around the Obama blogosphere, in one place.
What does that mean? I've set up a single RSS Feedreader that collect together all of the Obama blogger feeds in the blogosphere.
Why is this amazing? For one thing, I've included not only the RSS feed of Obama blogs, BUT DailyKos also sets up Feedburner feeds for each of its diarists, so I can include them as well. I did a trial run of including icebergslim and Geekesque.
I'll be expanding the list of blogs and bloggers in the Reader to include a broader and broader swath of the Obama blogosphere.
I was also wondering whether to include the official Obama headquarters blogs (New Media HQ, Students for Barack Obama, etc) in this feed or to create a separate feed reader? I think I want to keep them separate just because our real mission is to highlight the efforts of independent bloggers --- the efforts that you might not hear about anywhere else. Our goal is not to replicate the Obama website but to do the things that it doesn't do.
Problems: It's not a widget, so it's not exportable, so no one can take this feature and put it on their own website --- which is what Vermonter originally suggested. I'll keep working on this.
Other Changes: I've also at least temporarily scrapped the "Quick Hits" section and merged it with the Front Page. This allows us to move the Recommended Diaries list to the top of the page --- which helps us stress its importance. The "Livefeed" will also hopefully cover the need for a "Quick Hits" section by delivering breaking news.
Special congratulations to Korha for being our one hundredth registered user! Welcome to One Million Strong!
You'll notice that Shaun Appleby has also now officially been added to the Guest Blogger list and will also be posting on the frontpage. We've very happy to have him. MyDDers among you will know him well.
Lastly, a video tribute to Paul Wellstone, who died five years ago this week:
For more on mourning around the blogosphere for Wellstone yesterday, check out Adam Conner's post on MyDD.
One Million Strong for Barack has been extremely kind about sponsoring this site, I was hoping we could return the favor.
1. First, if you haven't already, join the Facebook group:
2. One Million Strong for Barack is just $222 short of raising its goal of twenty thousand dollars on its official fundraising page. They've managed to raise that much with an average contribution of just twenty-eight dollars from nearly seven hundred contributors.
And they are so very close. I thought we might be able to help out and return the favor. Chip in even ten dollars if you can. Let's finish the job!
[On a side note, you might have noticed that we're experimenting a little bit with generating revenue from this website. Please note that all that revenue will be reinvested either directly in improving and maintaining the website or into spreading the word through search engine advertising.]
We operate this website and community blog on our own funds. Please help support and improve this site by contributing: And give directly to the Obama campaign through our Group Fundraising Page.
(Some tips on getting started... - promoted by psericks)
1. Set up an Account:
In the blue Menu box in the right-hand margin, click on "Set up a New Account," you'll be asked to come up with a user name and to type in your email address. You'll then be instantly emailed a randomly generated password. Use the password to log in, and you'll then be able to write comments, post diaries, and lots of other good stuff. No password, no fun stuff.
2. Set up your User Page:
Once you log in for the first time, you'll be able to click on your user name's Page in the Menu box. Here you can change your password, post your Facebook or blog URL, an email address, etc.
Please consider posting an email address. One of the functions of this website is to help Obama supporters get in touch with one another. Email is of course the easiest way. You can also enter your email address like this: perickson AT gmail DOT com, as an anti-spam measure. Plus, it's stylish.
3. Bookmark the Homepage!
Save it to your favorites list! Come back often! You can also subscribe to an RSS feed.
4. Write your first diary.
Use the Menu box to write your first diary. One Million Strong has a WYSIWYG editor, meaning that there are handy buttons to help you post links or pictures, indent for blockquotes, basic style functions. YouTube, DailyShow, Google, and Brightcove all work great here --- just post the embed code into the body of your diary.
If you post substantial chunks of text from another source, please respect copyright by not posting the entire article, provide a link to the source (using the little chain button), and indent or blockquote the text to clearly indicate what is your own work. (For more user guidelines, click "There's More" below.)
Also, please use the "Main Text" section of your diary to post your introduction --- the first three or four paragraphs --- and then use the "Extended Text" section for the main body.
The Obama campaign is unique in the amount of energy and innovation that it has spawned on the web: people like Farouk Olu Aregbe and Tamer Abouzeid who changed the way people think about the Facebook; Meredith Segal, who in 2006 founded the Facebook group that was to become the official student wing of Obama's campaign; citizen ad creators like lovingj; independent bloggers like sagereader of Think on These Things; assorted Kossacks and MyDD diarists; and, yes, Phillip de Vellis and Joe Anthony.
But until now, all of these independent efforts have lacked a central meeting place. There hasn't been a central blogroll or a place to recognize those efforts.
Sponsored by and affiliated with the Facebook group One Million Strong for Barack, One Million Strong was founded with three main goals in mind:
1. To serve as a gathering place for Obama supporters in the blogosphere. 2. To bridge the gap between the blogosphere and the energy for Obama on the Facebook. 3. To provide a forum for discussion of progressive policy, politics, and activism.
Mapping the Obama Blogosphere
While there have been some previous efforts to set up blogrolls, we'd like to develop the most thorough and engaging --- the most useful --- blogroll of active Obama supporter blogs on the web. I will also be doing regular round-ups of news and commentary on Obama's campaign around the blogosphere.
More than that, I hope to review and profile various bloggers and online grassroots efforts.
If there are active blogs that we've missed, please feel free to add a comment in this thread or to send us an email at admin@onemillionstrong.us.
Feel free, of course, to crosspost your blog entries here in the diaries. Let others know what you're working on. Make yourself at home.
Help Us Be Helpful
Lastly, this is meant to be a community resource. That means that if you have any suggestions about additional features, about our mission or about the direction of this blog, please feel free to leave your comments. We want to know how we can be more helpful.
Second, however, that also means that there is a communal responsibility to keep the discussion threads clean and respectful, to be just and responsible in our criticism of other candidates. Excessive bashing of Obama or the Democratic Party will not be tolerated.
Anyway, welcome to One Million Strong! Let me know if you have any questions.
