Note: my only involvement to date was to provide early input and to help with the platform selection process.  From Oct. 2008 onwards I have been occasionally updated.

Background

For the past decade, MoveOn in the US has been a powerful new voice in US politics with some describing it as the US's third political party. It has shaped legislation, helped determine the fate of progressive (and non-progressive) politicians and shaped the outcome of elections. They describe their approach as a "new model of people-powered organizing that brings ordinary progressives rushing back into politics".

In 2004, GetUp started in Australia with similar results. Now a similar initiative - 38Degrees - is being setup in the UK.

Both achieve their results through responding to member interests and using that to mobilise mass popular support. The Internet is the primary tool to mobilise people quickly but this requires savvy communications and good timing.

Current Status

Update: 16 June 2009

It is now three weeks after launch - and 38Degrees.org.uk have launched several UK-relevant actions. So how are they doing?  It is hard to tell from the outside, but using freely available tools, we can see the traffic pattern and relative visitor level.

As we can see from the graph above, 38Degrees's peak website traffic was on the launch day (26 May, 2009) and on that day they achieved about half of what Oxfam GB would acheive on a normal day and about the same as Avaaz.org would achieve on a normal day (a day when they don't send an email). 90% of these visitors are based in the UK.

This is fairly good considering Oxfam GB is 60 years old and the most well known charity in the UK and Avaaz is widely known in the UK by those politically active as well. An update of the graph above can be seen anytime on the Alexa site.

Update: 26 May 2009

38Degrees has launched. The lead issue is on the UK MP's Expenses since that has been a top issues for the media and public outrage for the last few weeks. While not breaking news, it has stirred up a lot of popular concern that has had little outlet to date.

A few key best practices are missing:

1. None of the launch emails had tracking to determine who came from what 'source or the numbers from each source
   
2. An opt-in checkbox on the action form
   
3. A secondary ask directly on the thank you page and in the thank you email (vs. link from them)

As 38Degrees has just launched, they have gotten through the most difficult phase: starting. Now they can fine-tune it.

Supportive and critical coverage of the launch includes:

Supportive

• A British MoveOn - 38 Degrees - launches today
• Fed up with your MP’s behaviour?
• Campaign seeks powers to sack MPs
• Reforming UK Politics – you  might want to link up with 38 Degrees
• New campaign to give voters the right to recall their MP!

Constructive Critics

• 38 Degrees - will the data protection issues inhibit sign up?
• 38 Degrees Blog: some great comments being made
  
• Hello 38 degrees

The post on data protection concerns I found the very insightful as it deals directly with issues almost all online actions. It is just that no-one mentions it. So I suggest you look at that post and see if you can address the issues before the finger is pointed at you!

Comments on the 38 Degrees Blog posts were also excellent and show people were engaging with the idea - even if they were critical of it. There is much to learn from these for anyone running campaigns online.

Update: 11 May 2009

38 Degrees seems to be within weeks of launch.  Right now they need interim freelance contributors and volunteers to help over the next few months and likely beyond.

If you are interested in 38 Degrees :

1. Signup for their launch emails
2. Apply to be a freelance contributor or volunteer (PDF)

Update: 2 April 2009

The 2009 eCampaigning Forum has just finished and one of the dinner meetings was about creating an open source e-campaigning platform for setting up other MoveOn / GetUp / Avaaz / 38Degrees type initiatives around the world.

These are baby steps, but if the initial action plan yeilds positive results, then in a year or so there could be a robust, well-tested, open source platform for taking this model global.

The main problem with the current model is the amount of funding it requires to get started. While some of that is unavoidable like hiring staff, much is also spent on the platform - all of which are currently custom developed and usually proproetry to the development company. Removing this barrier means smaller countries with less sources for funding can also start too.

38 Degrees role in this is as one of the partners investing time and budget to make this happen.

Update: 3 February 2009

It seems George Mombiot's phone call was about a new UK-based MoveOn-type" initiative being launched: Do Something About it.

Every 1-2 years, a new "UK-based MoveOn-type initiative launches and sputters along due to issues like underinvestment, lack of e-campaigning expertise and mis-understanding the MoveOn model (which actually sould be the GetUp model since MoveOn was an unexpected success while GetUp was an intentional success). Another initiative which claim to apply the MoveOn model in the UK include Our World Our Say, but they too have been unable to to attract large number os supporters to mobilise.

While 38 Degrees has no guarantee of success, two success factors the others didn't have gives it a better chance than others:

1. It has the budget to hire and operate for 2 years without worring about fundraising
2. It has expertise from people who helped run MoveOn and to setup GetUp

Each of these initiatives has a loyal, informed and passionate participant base that in its own right is an important and valuable part of the progressive movement. Yet the MoveOn/GetUp model promises more than that: it promises to dramatically broaden the base of people involved in shaping progressive politics to those who have never been involved before. MoveOn and GetUp both have over 1% of thier respective populations as members - that's the benchmark. For that you need adequate funding and great mass communication expertise.

Update: 2 February 2009

I received a strange call this morning. George Mombiot found this blog post and asked if the initiative had launched yet. My answer: not to my knowledge (but then I'm not involved in the inner workings of 38 Degrees).

It seems he didn't take any time to read the post though, he just search for something like 'move on' and 'uk', found this post and called the number at the top of the screen.  Thus he actually called it 'my initiative' and seems to have no clue what FairSay does and what its involvement with 38 Degrees is. Now I know what you'll say: "a journalist - reading - don't be silly!"

I've alerted my 38Degrees contacts...I'm sure we'll see what is driving this shortly!

Update: 23 January 2009

38 Degrees now has an executive director: David Babs. David was the head of activism for Friends of the Earth UK around the Big Ask campaign.

Update: 8 December 2008

I've just returned fromthe 38 Degrees "Advisory Network" launch:a loose association of leading practitioners, scholars, funders and activists who contribute their council, creativity and networking assistance to 38 Degrees as it unfolds.

It was also the launch of the 38 Degrees name and semi-final identity.

Update: 26 November 2008

This initiative now has a name: 38 Degrees.  This is based on the fact that a human-induced avalanche can happen when the angle of the slope is 38 degrees or greater.  The obvious parallel is that 38 Degrees will create a popular 'avalanche' of democratic participation.

Until you know this concept and parallel, 38 Degrees is a bit obscure, but then so was 'Move On' and 'Avaaz'. However symbolism in campaigning is a critial element and thus the symbolism of this name should help people tell the story of 38 Degrees and that of getting widespread publ participation in shaping society.

Now they need to work this into an identity.

Update: 14 October 2008

The providers of the design and the technology have been chosen - so now the core team (not me) has to get on with implementing the platform.

Update: 22 September 2008

12 responses to the RFP were received from the 30+ that were distributed. Proposals can be roughly grouped into:

• Application Service Providers (ASP)
• Development led: those that focus on the functionality and design is added later
• Design led: those that focus on the user interface first and functionality is built around that

Over the week short listing occurred and the plan is that in early October they will be responded to.

Update: 18 September 2008

The job description for the Executive Director role is available. One comment I received was that finally this is a role that is quite attractive and does not throw the successful candidate into a political minefield of internal politics.

Update: 12 September 2008

The Request for Proposals (RFP) has been released and there seems to be a lot of interest in it.

Update: 1 September 2008

Following the July meeting, I was asked to help draft the Request for Proposals (RFP) so that the tools and website could be developed for the project launch. This RFP went out on 12 Sep. and responses are required by 21 Sep.

At the moment, the strategy and plans still don't exist and thus it feels a bit strange asking for tools to be developed when the plans don't exist yet. However this is the normal state of things with eCampaigning since the technology development can take longer than the campaigning planning.

Update: 23 July 08

I was invited to an initial meeting to discuss the state of the UK in terms of campaigning and e-campaigning.  This meeting also established who was behind this initiative, including the funding which is critical.