Websites of the Atlanta Elections 2001

Web site RFP's

Campaign sites will cover the spectrum from single-page brochure sites to campaign management site.  Photo courtesy Philip Greenspun.

Brochure sites are your campaign flyer on the web.  You can and probably should do it on a single page.

• Candidates name

• Office and election date

• Picture

• Email and snail mail addresses 

• Link to voter registration information

• Basic platform

• Essential extras

  • Your own domain name.  Preferably one you can reuse in future campaigns.

  • Register for search engines.  You may need to pay to get it listed quickly.

• Required technical expertise

  • Find a web savvy friend or volunteer, get a picture, find a website you like the look of, and tell your volunteer to make a site "like that."

  • Don't do anything more except answer you email.

The in-between sites are a juiced up brochure sites.

(more later)

Campaign management sites allow your staff to operate your campaign systems over the web.  Instead of buying and installing software on your office's network server (if you are fortunate enough to have an office and a network) and/or on individual personal computers, you rent software and space on a web server and operate it from anywhere via a web browser.  Your site is part private and part public.  In fact the public part could be a simple brochure site.

Campaign managements sites should be as generic as accounting software.  Your site will be able to do far more than you need to do or you are able to do.  You'll pick and choose the functions you want.

• Name manager

  • Voters

  • Contributors

  • Candidates

  • Volunteers

  • Folks who want yard signs, bumper stickers, etc.

  • Media contacts

  • Consultants

  • Export / Import names from other sources and databases.

• Event manager

  • Calendar

  • Work flow

  • Project management

• Document manager

  • Platform

  • Speeches

  • Press clippings

  • Endorsements

• Finance managemer

  • Contributions

  • Expenses

  • Budgeting

  • Required reporting

• Permission management

  • Who has permission to see what?

  • What can ordinary users see?

• User sign-up

  • Users can register for email, events, yard signs, etc.

• Required technical expertise

  • You are going to pay someone to operate and manage this system.

  • You do not need a technical staff at your campaign office, nor a network.

  • Your staff must understand how to use the system features you choose.

  • Your staff will be able to use the system from anywhere.

(more later)