Fireside21

I was surprised not to have heard about this before, so be sure to read Election E-Mails Can End Your Term in the Office.

Here’s an excerpt:

Today, of course, political messages, campaign solicitations, cartoons and satire whiz across the country via e-mail. Federal employees cannot control what pops into their e-mail inbox. However, forwarding an e-mail that urges a vote for a specific candidate or seeks to raise campaign money is a Hatch Act violation if done inside a federal building, the OSC has determined.

We have received a number of calls this week about web video and what Fireside21 has to offer. A Roll Call article last week started the conversation. I’m happy to report that video has always been a part of eManager and is 100% compliant with the franking rules.

Here’s a full run-down of how video works inside of Fireside Web™.

Easy Upload and Playback

• Fireside Web™ allows you to post videos in minutes.
• Videos play in the browser right on your web site.
• Avoid constituents leaving your site.

Viral Sharing

• Fireside Web™ makes it easy for bloggers and media outlets to display your videos by generating unique links and embed code.
• You can embed all your videos on any page of web site.

Franking Compliance

• Fireside21’s video servers are within the House domain.
• Fireside Web™ allows you to have your own private video channel.
• No advertisements or “related” videos.

Last week the Washington Post picked up on the franking rules story too. My favorite part is about when Rep. Kevin McCarthy…

…discovered that embedding YouTube videos on his official Web site violated his commission’s prohibition on links to commercial sites, he brought the issue to the commission’s chairman, Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.).

Capuano’s response may have been a tad cavalier — “just go ahead and do it; everyone else does”

An article in today’s Roll Call highlights progress being made in revising House rules that hinder web site functionality. I’m glad to hear that these discussions are finally happening and hopefully new recommendations will be implemented soon.

In particular, members of the franking commission who met this week discussed options that would allow YouTube videos to be compliant with the rules:

The commission has asked the House Administration Committee to develop a policy that allows Members to post videos on an outside Web site that “meets requirements which ensure the integrity of the House,” according to an e-mail from commission Chairman Mike Capuano’s (D-Mass.) spokeswoman, Alison Mills.

“It’s a good first step,” said Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who is a member of the commission. McCarthy first brought the issue to the commission a year ago, after revamping his Web site and realizing he couldn’t post YouTube videos.

Still, McCarthy said he hopes the commission eventually finds a longer-lasting solution. With new technology and new Web sites popping up every day, the commission should recommend rules that would allow Members to keep up with their constituents, he said.

As the article mentions, there is widespread disregard for the current rules. The fact remains that most of the rules regarding web site and email communication are derived from decades-old language drafted to regulate franked mail and other physical advertising.

The YouTube example is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of how these regulations don’t make much sense.

What is that gibberish all about? Well, the garbled symbols and letters that some of your email recipients are seeing in their inboxes are the result of a formatting issue. This is a common issue that occurs with both emails and websites.

Basically, different internet browsers and email platforms like Yahoo, Gmail, and Microsoft Outlook each display characters and read emails in different ways. The same email may look perfect in Microsoft Outlook and terrible in Gmail. The problem generally occurs with special characters and symbols like apostrophes, ampersands, and quotation marks.

The good news is that there is an easy fix to this problem using what are called HTML character references in place of these characters and symbols. A quick reference of these symbols can be found here. Simply match the desired character in the right column with the code in the left column.

When you are drafting your email you simply need to replace any special characters with their standardized code that is recognized by almost all email platforms. In order to make this change you need to switch to the “code” or “html” view when drafting your email. Then locate each special character and replace it with the standardized HTML character reference.

Please feel free to give us a call if you have any questions or would like us to walk you through the process.