Patrick Ruffini is running an interesting experiment this evening:
We’re asking Iowans to join us in an experiment to see if the Internet can provide faster, better results on the night of the first-in-the-nation Iowa Caucuses.
During your caucus, we’re asking you to use Twitter to send a text message with the results of your caucus as soon as they are announced. We’ll be tallying the reported results from the Democratic and Republican Caucuses and posting them live.
For the Democrats, this will help us to crack open an opaque reporting process where raw vote totals aren’t known by reporting estimated pre-”viability” support from caucusgoers themselves.
For those wanting to observe or participate can get started on the project’s Twitter page. Instructions can be found on the supporting I’m Twittering Live from My Iowa Precinct Caucus Facebook group:
1. Sign up for Twitter (twitter.com), a micro-blogging service that allows you to tell everyone what you’re doing — and report useful information around you.
2. Follow our Twitter user by going to http://twitter.com/iowacaucus or issuing a Twitter message saying “follow iowacaucus.”
3. If you’re an Iowa caucusgoer who pledges to send in results, send us a direct message via Twitter and we will “follow” you. This enables us to automatically get your updates.
4. On Caucus day or before, allow Twitter to send text messages to and from your phone. Go to “notifications” in Twitter’s right sidebar, enter your mobile phone numbe, tick off the checkbox, and follow the remaining instructions. If you’d like to receive text messages from our “iowacaucus” user (with results and updates) make sure you’re following us and Notifications are turned on when you go to our Twitter page (twitter.com/iowacaucus)
Standard text rates apply, and you’ll probably want to turn this off once the Caucus is done, but reporting via text message is the easiest way to share your results with us, as well as for us to share statewide results with you.
5. On Caucus night, send Twitter a text message at 40404 with your results once they are known. Prefix your message with “@iowacaucus” so we’ll know to pick it up and make sure to have the word “caucus” in the message just to be safe. Give us some indication of were you are — preferably a specific caucus location but if that’s too long, your city/town will do just fine.
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