WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Political text message spam is squarely in the sights of a new online petition calling on the Federal Communications Commission to stop the practice.

PocketSpammers.com, launched today by progressive organization Revolution Messaging, consists of a petition asking the FCC to end a new kind of voter suppression, which hits voters right in the wallet. Along with the petition, a short, fun video explains more about the issue and why people must take action today.

“We’ve already seen runaway spending on campaigns this year,” said Scott Goodstein, founder of the firm. “We need for the FCC to assure people that unwanted & illegal text message spam will not be tolerated – period.”

The firm says some corporations claim they have found a loophole in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) that allows them to send unsolicited political text message spam to users’ cell phones with no opt-in or opt-out component. Under this act, the FCC has adopted regulations, which prohibit sending spam text messages. Revolution Messaging is calling on the FCC to clarify that no loopholes are available to these unscrupulous organizations and that the ban on text messaging spam applies to ALL companies, including those who run Internet-to-phone text messaging programs.

To push this message to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Robert McDowe, Revolution Messaging also filed a petition with the FCC on January 19th asking them to clearly define the text message regulations included in the TCPA.

Revolution Messaging took its first stance against this practice in November 2010 when an onslaught of illegal text message spam was used against Democratic congressional races. The organization documented the practice and developed a calling tool for people to call their attorney general’s office.

The illegal practice resurfaced in October 2011 when Revolution Messaging helped the Virginia Democratic Party in working to stop unwanted text message spam used as a new type of voter suppression tactic in Virginia State Senate races. This led to the petition the firm filed with the FCC on January 19th.

Revolution Messaging predicts a costly 2012 election for voters if the FCC doesn’t stand up now and put an end to these unsolicited messages that are turning into a new form of voter suppression tactics.

Contacts

Revolution Messaging
Rafael Noboa y Rivera, 202-455-4673

Ironically, while this is the biggest online protest in history, it is also the type of action that the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate’s PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) would restrict. These two bills claim they would stop piracy and would implement harsher penalties on companies or individuals violating copyright laws online, but in effect, the outcome would put legitimate websites at risk with its vague use of language. If these bills pass, user-generated websites, the most well known being Facebook, Twitter and Wikipedia, would have to monitor everything going through their sites, risking being shut down if something slips through the cracks.

But because we have the freedom we do, those who use the Internet everyday, who maintain the sites we all rely on (how many times do you read Wikipedia a day? Be honest), who are responsible for cultivating the inner webs, ran an innovative, groundbreaking, and most importantly, successful protest.

Our lives revolve around the Internet, our phones and any other way we can find to digitally connect. So while people may criticize all the work being done behind a computer and deem it passive, yesterday’s example is living proof that an online movement inspired millions of people to take action and make sure their voice was heard. We are becoming a more interactive society and the Internet is a main supporting force in that, encouraging people to become involved and engaged.

This protest was yet another turning point for using the Internet to drive offline action. Seattle Against SOPA took the time to write, record and produce a video in opposition to the bills by covering Don Mclean’s “American Pie.” This offline action then came full circle as it became viral online and was a solid example of how, if SOPA and PIPA were passed, we would no longer have the ability to express our opinions and messages through creative means. It is work like this that the legislation could go after and those who produced this video could find themselves in jail for up to five years.

The protest was truly a team effort. The Revolution joined the strike by blacking out our website and urging people to call Congress in opposition of PIPA.

(There’s still time! Call 866-279-7472 to tell your senator to oppose PIPA!)

Along with Revolution Messaging, other big names that participated included Wikipedia, Reddit, Mozilla, and even Congressmen and women, such as Representative Anna Eshoo, a California Democrat. The reaction was exceptional; Google alone saw over 4 million people sign their petition by 3pm on Wednesday.

The worldwide blackout is beginning to see success as co-sponsors of both SOPA and PIPA begin to “drop like flies.” Wednesday’s victory included a total of 18 senators coming out in opposition to PIPA, including 7 former co-sponsors dropping off.

These two bills are losing support from both the left and right, each acknowledging the threat it poses: removing our right to freedom of speech. The power of the Internet and online organizingcame together for a successful campaign, and the potential for censoring our online activity is slowly eroding.

Post Secret put it best: Under SOPA, you could get 5 years for uploading a Michael Jackson song, one year more than the doctor who killed him.

Egypt. Wisconsin. Wall Street. In these places, and many, many more locations, those outraged were communicating and organizing thanks to their smartphones. SMS continued to prove invaluable for driving action as many faced problems with the data connections on their phone (whether nefarious or from congestion) – highlighting the importance of including text messaging as part of any social media strategy.

It is difficult to imagine what new movements, technology and trends we will see in 2012. So we decided to give that challenge to our staff. See below for our staff 2012 predictions as well as their best of 2011 picks. Please also share yours with us by texting them to 738674 (REVMSG), tweeting them @revmsg or sharing them at facebook.com/revmsg.

Favorite App or Website of 2011

Alison: Twitter. Even though it has been around a while, this was the year that skeptics finally woke up and realized that Twitter can be a catalyzing force in social movements.

Courtney: Brand new Uber- towncars come directly to you in major cities, love it!  And personally, “My Pregnancy” for letting me know what size vegetable my pre-born kid is each week.

David: Angry Birds became available in the iOS App Store in 2009. Two years, 2 retails stores and huge merchandise sales later, the game’s anonymous protagonists have become the most popular marketable video game characters since Pac-Man or, possibly, Mario.

Doug: Favorite Site - Daring FireBall: John Gruber is fast becoming our generation’s Walt Mossberg, making clear the meaning behind tech headlines and dispatching wannabe pundits. Favorite App - HBO Go on iPad: Finally, HBO subscribers get the love the deserve with access to *all* HBO content on their device; Springpad: Simple, easy, cloud-based and multi-device-friendly task management.

Kayla: Storify. This new website allows both individuals and large news organizations to group together different social media posts, such as tweets, images, and Facebook updates, and create a story with added commentary.

Sam: I was initially a skeptic of Spotify, but thought I would try it out and have enjoyed every minute of my experience.  Upgrading to a premium account is well worth the money when you are working from your laptop all day.

Scott: The parkmobile app. Even though it won’t completely prevent many of us from getting parking tickets, it makes it a lot easier to feed a meter (and it is great to see the DC Gov embracing the convenience of mobile technology)!

Walker: Not an app, per se, but node.js came into it’s own in 2011 and showed that it’s got power. Microsoft threw their corporate weight behind the project and now you can run node.js on Windows Azure servers.

Predictions for 2012

Alison: The Google+ Hangout feature will continue to catch on – organizers will initiate hangouts from their phones and will broadcast their hangouts on YouTube. These more personal interactions will propel movements forward.

Courtney:Campaigns will recognize and embrace mobile technology during the election season, particularly as a way to bridge traditional outreach (yard signs) with social media outreach.

David: #1 – Steve Jobs legacy will continue to bring Apple great success through the next year, though I don’t expect an iPhone 5. #2 – SOPA will soon rear its ugly head again.

Doug: The rise of social commerce. Checking in = Cash becomes increasingly common. See AMEX/FourSquare arrangement for a preview of this trend.

Jason: Twitter and Facebook were critical to the Arab Spring and the Occupy Movement. The problem is that authorities are also using these tools to track protesters. Smaller, more agile messaging tools are springing up and could become big in 2012. No frills Vibe is being used by the Occupy movement to spread anonymous messages to limited areas (whisper, speak, shout, whistle, yell and bellow) for a period of time as short as 15 minutes.  You can tell those people who are close to you about the action you’re going to take anonymously and not leave a trace.

Kayla: Customer Service through Twitter. This is already happening slowly, but in 2012 customers will expect it from businesses and organizations.

Keegan: The strength of social media also creates its greatest weakness – the ability to insulate yourself with information that is only friendly to your set of beliefs. While it is so much easier to communicate with those that are like-minded, 2012 will bring a new set of challenges to people trying to use social media for the purposes of persuasion. The GOP in particular will face a difficult time both keeping up the radical message they need to keep their base fired up online, and appealing to independent and moderate voters. They will lose the House of Representatives because of this.

Rich: More and more people will be using enough devices in their day-to-day that services/apps for syncing logins, stored data and history will become a virtual necessity. Though this isn’t a new concept, it will become more widely adopted as users get tired of logging into every single service. The patchwork of services that sync one thing or another merely adds to this complexity most of the time, giving users one more password to remember and type into a tiny onscreen keyboard or binding them to using one manufacturer’s technology. By the end of the year, any piece of data not accessible on every device in a user’s pocket or on their desk will seem as anachronistic as a carrier-pigeon.
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Sam: Sports will be a driving force in mobile marketing for 2012. I think a deal will be made between app developers and NFL television networks to stream games live through
‪smartphone apps.

Scott: As celebrities control their own social media presence in greater numbers… these unique individuals with a passionate base will become more of a political force (Democrats and Republicans will be held accountable by these new social media armies).

In 2011 we watched as musicians went to Madison, Wisconsin and encouraged their fans to take action. Mainstream celebrities like Lady Gaga charged her 17,422,611 followers to get involved in LGBTQ rights. From Fat Mike to Miley Cyrus - artists are becoming more engaged and pushing their fans to make a difference.

Walker: 2012 will be the year of machine learning. We’ll expect more of all of our applications. They should always be learning what our personal preferences are, where we usually go, what we need and when we need it.

The Basics

At its core, SEO proves vital because most traffic to your site will come from people using search engines. Part of how search engines work is by determining ratings and rankings of links – if your website is ranked high, you will show up more often and in a top spot for searches. When it comes to people researching a topic, having your message visible in the top search results becomes key to attracting potential supporters.

Through many different tools available you can figure out what keywords or phrases are truly driving traffic to your site and make an effort to utilize that keyword or phrase in new content or future blog posts and tweets. Another way to increase your ranking is determined by backlinks. Are you linking to authoritative sites, such as universities or major news outlets? Or are a lot of your links, and those linking to you, of “low quality?” With Google’s recent change to the way they rank sites through an updated algorithm, backlinks are becoming more and more significant.

Along with SEO, you can use search retargeting to target people who are searching for specific keywords relating to your business or site. If you don’t rank #1 for a key word, such as “Social Media,” which has a high competition rate, you can still target people who searched that through online ads. They never had to visit your site, a person only needs to search “Social Media” and you can target them. But SEO is changing and developing into something new every day.

How Social Media is Becoming a Player in SEO

No longer is SEO just about catering to a search engine and its algorithms – there is a new avenue that has begun to take center stage. 

It’s not just about finding the most effective keywords and links within your website or a specific blog post. Now, it’s how big is your social network? How many friends do you have or how many people are following you on Twitter? The greater your reach on social media, the more often your article or site will pop up higher in searches.

Social networking sites are beginning to integrate with all different types of search engines and this will affect how often your site shows up and how much traffic s driven your way. Google recently added the +1 tool, allowing users to endorse certain websites or ads, ones that they find the most helpful and interesting in their own searches. When they +1 a URL, they are telling their friends, followers and others searching for similar information that the site is worth checking out. Therefore, your goal is to find a way to entice users to +1 your site or your Google ad. And Google searches, as well as Bing searches, aren’t just influenced by +1. According to Mashable, they also take into account tweets and Facebook likes.

A new feature in Facebook ads also impacts your organization’s SEO strategy. An organization can choose a post, photo, video or link that can act like an ad and show up on the right sidebar. Friends of your fans see these ads – they see that someone they know likes a certain brand or group. For example, if you have a friend that likes Democrat Elizabeth Warren, you would see an ad on the right side of your screen featuring a post Warren chooses to promote with an “endorsement” from your friend: John Doe likes Democrat Elizabeth Warren will be written above an ad for the promoted message.

Political SEO

It wasn’t that long ago that political campaigns and bloggers were using “Google bombs” to help drive unsavory content about an opponent to the top of the search rankings. Google and other search engines spend a lot of time trying to prevent the gaming of results, but it is still possible to be the target of so-called “black hat” SEO tactics. Because of this, it is important that political campaigns and advocacy organizations institute both a defensive and offensive strategy when it comes to SEO. Do you monitor issues that matter to you, and where your organization is ranked on them?

SEO is a changing industry and will continue to change as social networking and search engines begin to integrate even more. Having the right keywords and quality links will still prove beneficial in boosting your online presence. But your organization should start to adapt to the increasing importance of your social networks and the role they are beginning to play in helping drive traffic to your site.

A piece of software found on mobile devices, called Carrier IQ, could be storing personal data and tracking mobile users’ experience, and sending this information straight to the carriers. According to PC World, this software was discovered by security researcher Trevor Eckhart who published a report accusing the company of preloading this software on a number of different smartphones (without the consumers’ knowledge), where it could allow carriers to keep track of “key presses, browsing history, SMS logs, and location data without the users knowledge.”

First discovered on Sprint phones back in September, which prompted the first round of lawsuits, Carrier IQ is raising concerns not only with customers, but also with legislators. According to FierceMobileContent, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn) sent Carrier IQ a letter asking them to answer questions about its questionable data collection practices by December 14^th.

Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass), co-Chair of the Congressional Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, also got involved by starting to lobby the Federal Trade Commission to look into the firm’s practices. In addition to earlier lawsuits against Sprint in September, multiple law firms jointly filed a class action lawsuit in a Delaware Federal Court against Apple, HTC, Samsung, Motorola, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Carrier IQ, deeming this a “cell phone tracking software scandal.”

 AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile admitted to using Carrier IQ, but just to improve their network performance. Apple also said they used this software, but announced they stopped supporting the software in iPhones and will take it off all future iPhones. Verizon, RIM and Nokia denied using this software on their devices.

Carrier IQ denies that it stores and sends private user data. Last week, they released a statement saying “operators use Carrier IQ software only to diagnose operational problems on networks and mobile devices,” and that they are a “consumer advocate to the mobile operator.”

“The software receives a huge amount of information from the operating system,” Andrew Coward, Carrier IQ’s VP of marketing, told AllThingsD. “But just because it receives it doesn’t mean that it’s being used to gather intelligence about the user or passed along to the carrier.”

Consumer Watchdog, a non-profit consumer education and advocacy organization, is also involved, petitioning the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission to look into this issue as well. This issue has also been recognized internationally; groups across Europe are looking into this issue to make sure mobile users’ privacy isn’t being compromised.  The lawsuit being filed jointly in the Delaware Federal Court says that Carrier IQ and the associated carriers violated the Federal Wiretap Act, the Stored Electronic Communications Act, and the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

“This latest revelation of corporate America’s brazen disregard for the digital privacy rights of its customers is yet another example of the escalating erosion of liberty in this country,” David Straite, one of the lawyers leading this crusade, said in a statement. ”We are hopeful that the courts will allow ordinary customers the opportunity to remedy this outrageous breach.”

This isn’t something we as mobile consumers should take lightly. While Carrier IQ claims they are not collecting private data and sharing this information with carriers without our knowledge, there is a need for a thorough investigation into this issue. As consumers, we can’t stand idly by and watch from the sidelines, we must demand for a safe space in the mobile world and educate others of the different dangers we are now seeing. Protecting consumer privacy should always be the number one priority and right now, finding out the truth behind Carrier IQ’s software is a must.

So this weekend, I visited the Macy’s in Downtown Washington, DC to check out their program.

In the TV ads, the QR code is shown on a big display at the front of the store. In reality, the first QR code was in the vestibule and I missed it when I walked in. I eventually saw it on my way out of the store.

In my search for a QR code, I saw a seven-foot tall, three tiered poster near the exit. One concern I mentioned prior to arriving at Macy’s, was that in many thick-walled malls, cell phone reception can get spotty, so a program that depends on cell service comes with risks that users simply won’t be able to access their phones.

This display was near a glass door, so cell service was probably not an issue.

The Display

So this vertical display has room for three posters.  The top one had a QR code, the middle poster did not but the one on the floor did. That seemed to confuse me since my friend who was 5’4” had to reach up to access the top code and crane her neck to read the instructions. Simply putting the code in the middle of the display would allow a shopper of average height or those in wheelchairs the ability to scan the code and read the directions easier. The code on the floor makes no sense since no on is going to bend over to scan it.

The Language

Not all phones have a QR reader. To allow shoppers to access the QR code fun, Macy’s provides shoppers with the ability to text in for more information. The problem is no one proofread the language.

The language in bold was bolded on the signage:

See what it’s all about on your smart phone.

Scan this code or text thanx to 62297 (MACYS).

Download a QR code scanner (if you haven’t already) by texting reader to 62297.

Message and data rates may apply.

Macy’s is providing instructions to people who aren’t comfortable with QR codes and SMS programs. Make it simpler – don’t use the word thanx, use the uppercase THANKS  or another short, simple word. Chances are auto correct is going to change thanx to thanks anyway.

Also, be consistent. Why is thanx bold, but reader isn’t? Capitalize and bold that too. I had to read it twice to figure out that the word reader was the keyword for this program.

Please make the program simple.

So now the good: After I found the QR code and scanned it, it worked. My phone asked my permission to go to Macy’s mobile page and a video started playing on my BlackBerry. Let me repeat, a video played on my BlackBerry! Video rarely works on my phone, so I was thrilled to see it work.

Back to the bad: I was also kind of embarrassed to walk around the store with my BlackBerry blaring a commercial so I stayed by the door and watched a few more seconds of the video. This is probably not great for foot traffic. Also, I got bored quickly and stopped watching.

Some advice: Use the code to highlight some of the new goods in the store; have Martha Stewart or Diddy or an actor hired to play a sales associate tell me what’s new this week and prompt me to ask an employee where I can find it. See if sales on the item increase. After all, that’s your intention, to sell more product. If you see an increase in revenue, you’ve got yourself a successful program!

Macy’s, you deserve credit for running this program. As a fan of mobile programs and QR codes, I think what you’re doing is great. You just need to tweak the program slightly and you could have a winner.

By Staffer Jason Rosenberg

The contest offers $100,000 in prizes, with $30,000 going to the winner, $20,000 for 2nd, $30,000 for 3rd and other prizes for different categories, including best design and best use of SMS.

Apps for Communities created a forum to share ideas and vote on any favorites.

Up to the challenge? Can you help improve the lives of those in your community who don’t have easy access to the Internet?

The deadline is approaching – Have your submission in by October 3!

http://appsforcommunities.challenge.gov/

One way organizations try to insert their message into the public conscience is through astroturfing or cashroots. The purpose of astroturfing is to create a false sense of popular support for an idea or person. It’s the manufactured form of grassroots. It can be paying people to canvass or having people send a stock letter to the editor of their local paper. Sometimes their deception is more blatant than that. For example, in 2009, Bonner and Associates used NAACP letterhead, forged signatures, and sent them in to Representative Tom Perriello pressing him to vote against clean energy reform. Techniques like this now run rampant on the Internet.

Corporations and governments create fake personas, also known as sockpuppets, to digitally astroturf. They make several accounts on social media sites or they comment on blogs, manufacturing broad support or disapproval for an idea. Astroturfers deceive indirectly through a false perception of widespread support and directly by spreading lies or linking to a website containing false information.

Luckily we do not have to sit idly by and watch these deceptions continue. Truthy, a system crafted by The Indiana University Center for Complex Networks & Systems Research, analyzes and maps data distribution on Twitter. Their first study, Detecting and Tracking the Spread of Astroturf Memes in Microblog Streams, developed technology to identify harmful Twitter users. These are the users that astroturf, disseminate misinformation, and smear people that oppose them.

The folks behind Truthy collect data from Twitter and analyze the method of delivery to determine whether it’s astroturfing or genuine accounts. They identify a particular piece of information and create visualization for how it was shared on Twitter. These images help identify the “truthiness” (a term coined by Stephen Colbert: it is claimed to be true based on emotion or feeling and not on evidence or fact) of a tweet. They do this by displaying the direction and distribution of information flow, i.e. how many users tweet or retweet the information, where the tweets originate from, and how many times a tweet is retweeted among the originators.

Below are some examples of these visualizations. Black dots are Twitter accounts that post the information, blue is a retweet, and orange is a mention.

If the information seems to have spread in a misleading way, such as the originators tweeting only one message or only following users who retweet their message, then it is labeled as truthy.

Despite innovations in the field of astroturf detection, companies and governments are becoming more sophisticated in avoiding the appearance of being truthy. Last February, the Daily Kos reported on a leaked HBGary email. As they describe it, HBGary is creating an “army of sockpuppets,” or what the company calls “persona management.”

Persona management involves software that automatically creates a whole fake identity online. It provides an astroturfer with online identities, equipped with everything they need to look real. The personas have emails, web pages, accouns on Twitter or Myspace, and even full names for Facebook and LinkedIn, giving the appearance of a real person. The software can then update these profiles, reposting and retweeting information from other sites. Companies and governments then have “pre-aged” accounts they can use to overpower the narrative on the Internet. Scary stuff.

Thankfully it does not seem that the voice of the people has been drowned out yet. We have to continue developing technology like Truthy to counter it and preserve online democracy. Yet, the technology will not be enough. It is essential that we engage with these tools and report astroturfing wherever we see it. Source Watch, an online encyclopedia where anyone can report on manipulation of public opinion, is a great place to start.

Today, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project released their report: How Americans Use Text Messaging. This survey shows that 83% of Americans own cell phones and of that number, a majority (73%) use texting.

Text message users exchange twice as many texts as they did in 2009, sending out 41.5 messages per day rather than only 21.9 in 2009. Additionally, almost one-third (31%) of texting Americans prefer texts rather than calls.

Avid texters are even more likely to prefer texting to talking. Over half (55%) of those who send or receive over 50 messages a day say they would prefer a text message.

Why texting?

Aaron Smith, a senior research specialist with Pew’s Internet & American Life Project, believes that texting continues to be popular because “anyone with a phone can text anyone else without worrying whether or not the person they are trying to reach is on the same service–as does the fact that you can text from pretty much any type of cellphone” (Source: Media Post).

Which do you prefer?

All of us at Revolution Messaging were excited to be a part of this movement. We firmly believe that years from now we will look at the images below and remember the moment when we stood together and turned the tide against those that seek to destroy what makes America great – the middle class.

Take a look at some of our favorite images and help us remember this historic movement by sending your own favorites to democracy@revolutionmessaging.com.