Spam forces locking this site down

Submitted by patdunlavey on Sun, 06/21/2009 - 06:23.

Since new spam accounts, forum posts and comments have been overwhelming this site, I have had to lock it down:

  • Rather than delete all the spam accounts, I assigned all the users I could identify as legitimate or probably legitimate to a new role: "human-authenticated user." These users can post new forum topics and comments as before. If I haven't authenticated your account, please contact me (pat at pdcarto dot com)
  • For the indefinite future (until/if we upgrade to a new version of Drupal), new user accounts must be created by an administrator. Email pat at pdcarto dot com if you want an account

I think I have successfully removed all of the offending forum topics and comments. If legitimate content was lost in this purge, I sincerely apologize.

Thanks - Pat

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Advokit - Rediscover your Grassroots

Submitted by patdunlavey on Wed, 05/17/2006 - 07:48.

Manage Your Campaign

Advokit is a free web-based voter contact management system created by and for the grassroots. Using Advokit, you can combine the power of voter files and social networking to build your grassroots into an organization, and use that organization to identify and mobilize supporters. Advokit is an online hub for a campaign’s activist recruitment, voter registration, supporter identification, get-out-the-vote, door-to-door canvassing and phone bank work.

Activate Social Networks

The Internet is leveling the political playing field, allowing every concerned citizen to become an activist for their chosen issues and on behalf of yours. When friends asks friends to vote, positive response rates are five to ten times greater than when campaigns canvass anonymously. Advokit positions campaigns to harness the grassroots power of social networking.

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If you're waiting for version 2.0, dont!

Submitted by patdunlavey on Wed, 09/03/2008 - 09:00.

Bob asked on 9/2/2008:

"Any news on the 2.0 release? I looked at the mailing lists, but they seem to have petered out 8 months ago."

At some point I hope to pick up where I left off on the documentation, maybe work on a few bugs, and then report out a nominal version 2.0. However I don't personally envision working on Advokit beyond that. Both politics and technology have moved a fair distance from where they were in 2003 when Advokit was started.

Advokit development since 2004 has been almost entirely a solo effort, with no pay and little community feedback and support. However, if anyone wants to try their hand at designing and coding improvements to Advokit or even taking over the whole project, I will lend all the support I can!

If you're waiting for the official version 2.0 release to try out Advokit, don't! You should go ahead and download the current development version and start using it. No significant changes have been planned between now and the 2.0 release. When and if 2.0 is officially released, you should be able to simply update your existing installation using the installer.

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Getting ready for Advokit 2.0

Submitted by patdunlavey on Thu, 11/22/2007 - 08:35.

I think I have - finally - completed the list of enhancements that I wanted to include in Advokit 2.0. I hope to officially tag Advokit 2.0 beta 1 next week. From here on out, there will be no significant changes - just bug fixes and easy usability improvements. I will now be turning my focus to compiling documentation and fixing bugs.

The documentation plan is as follows:

  • Update the existing help screens and add many new ones.
  • Create a comprehensive "Advokit 2.0 Guide" for campaign leaders (I've started this at http://advokit.net/node/162 ).
  • Create several printable use-case-specific guides for activists and leaders.
  • Edit existing documentation on advokit.net to bring up to date with Advokit 2.0

If you would be interested in helping test or write documentation, please let me know!!!!

Watch here for further announcements...

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Importing County Voting Records Into Advokit - by John Barta, Morro Bay , California

Submitted by patdunlavey on Thu, 03/02/2006 - 14:28.

Advokit works with many tables and fields of data within those tables. The Advokit system is highly structured. Unfortunately, local voter files come in all shapes, sizes, and qualities. So, you will first use your own computer to put that information into shape before it can be imported into Advokit. The process involves getting your local data and then your conversion of that data into a "comma separated values" (CSV) file that is usable by Advokit. The county data must be cleaned up and often parsed in order for Advokit to be able to convert and import it without error into the Advokit system data file which is a MySQL file. You upload your "cleaned up" CSV file to the proper location on the web server where it can be acted upon. The actual importation of data from the CSV file to the MySQL file is done on the web server using a perl script called "import.pl" which is part of the Advokit utilities.

The basic steps in the process are as follows:

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