VIRTUAL MEETUP

Brian Ulaszewski... and Brian Omegamu

If you're a politically engaged Resident-- especially if you're in the 90802, 90813, and 90814 area codes of Los Angeles-- you may want to drop by the home of Tom Bukowski at 5pm tomorrow for a virtual meet-up with Brian Ulaszewski (Brian Omegamu in-world), candidate for Second District City Council in Long Beach, California.  To my knowledge, he's the first political candidate to use a virtual world to help build a coalition of supporters, and like the Internet-driven meetups which spearheaded so much of the campaigning during the last national election, particularly for Howard Dean, he's hoping raising awareness in here will translate into a base of supporters for the early June election. (Though one assumes he's shooting for better results than Dr. Dean ultimately ended up with.)

Something of Brian's Joe Trippi in Second Life, Tom Bukowski put together this event, as well as an earlier campaign feeler.  Tomorrow won't just be a meet-and-greet with the candidate, however, since it will include a virtual world showing of works by local artists.  (And in the spirit of equal time, if any competitor for the Second District seat wishes to start campaigning in Second Life, I will post their events here, as well.)

So far, it should be said, the interest is more theoretical in nature, at least in SL-- though they're also campaigning in other Net-based venues.

"We have not met any Second Life residents who live in the district but Myspace has yielded some great results," Brian tells me.  (He uses his Myspace profile to campaign, too.) "I think as SL increases residents it can be a more viable tool in local elections," he continues. "I can see national elections going into SL door to door.  There is probably enough Californians who are in SL that a gubenatorial candidate would probably do well to do a rally in Second Life."

"And there's a lot of avatars that look like Arnold," I point out, "so at least the Republicans will be all set."

As for his platform, Brian Omegamu mentions his track record as an active volunteer for several public works projects in the district.  "I find in elections that everyone talks about what they can do or what they will do if elected," he says. "With eleven candidates its hard to set yourself apart. Whether parking, park space, economic development or historic preservation, these are things I am already addressing.  Three parks in the pipeline, over a hundred new parking stalls for residents (parking shortage is huge in the 2nd), these are things I am doing today. We have been without a councilmember for three months now and we need someone to hit the ground running.  June 6th is the election and if I win I am ready to go on June 7th."

I would stay longer, but another story is going on.  "Now if you'll excuse me," I tell them, "I have to shoot some photos at a mech high fashion show featuring 50 foot spider robots."

Brian Omegamu seems piqued: "Maybe I can ride that in a parade or something."

"You need something on your platform addressing giant spider robots, Brian.  It's always a threat but most politicians avoid it."

"If they vote I am for them," he says judiciously. "If not, I'm against them."

Update, 6/30:  I've been meaning to clarify the point I made about "raising awareness in here will translate into a base of supporters" like the Dean campaign.  As mentioned in an earlier post, the election Brian was running in was close enough that a few dozen votes could easily make the difference-- a number that could quite plausibly be gained by building a base from SL Residents living in his district.   I should have made that clear in this post as well, while emphasizing that Brian and Bukowski his SL campaign manager (so to speak) primarily saw the SL meetup as an experiment, not a base-building excercise (though Bukowski did consider this as a distinct possibility.)  Thanks to Zero Grace for pointing these issues out.

Ultimately, it must be added, Brian Ulaszewski lost the election, placing in the middle of the 12 candidate contest. 

Comments

[rikomatic]

Good luck and welcome to Mr. Ulaszewski. I am very interested in seeing how RL politics comes to be more and more a part of SL.

I have to say that the likelihood of his SL campaigning having any effect on his chances of winning are slim to none. Of all the new media tools out there for politicians, SL is at this stage probably the least likely to yield immediate election returns. He should concentrate on his My Space profile, blogging and more viral media.

I think that there is near term potential for small party organizers, i.e. the Greens, to get together in SL for more frequent virtual caucuses and strategy sessions. SL is becoming a good educational tool that could be easily applied to political party processes.

But as a way of reaching new constituents in your local district, SL just seems like a losing strategy.

[Tom Boellstorff]

Thanks for your comment, Rikomatic! Your skepticism is understandable - we're not really thinking that it will do that much either, just that it is an experiment worth trying. The interesting question is: does the skepticism come from the state of things like sl at this point in time, or is it a more fundamental issue? MySpace has proven helpful, so we thought we'd see if sl could play a role too. I'll add some more comments after the meet-and-greet later today (Sun May 28, 5pm sl time).