Director of Strategic Communications
What is Strategic Communications? Read more here.
Fred has been blogging since 2001. Immediately before joining Advomatic to aid Democrats and progressive organizations, Fred was Director of Communications at the municipal level in New York. Creative use of technology and online social networks got him into City Hall. During the underdog campaign Fred utilized social networks such as MySpace.com and Migente.com to recruit, coordinate, and communicate with volunteers as GOTV Director and Communications aide.
A previous election found Fred blogging as Online Communications Director for Parks1, an issue advocacy campaign in New York City. Fred built and ran the daily blog, website, database, and mailing system that managed the 30,000 New Yorkers they identified, the 386 partner groups they recruited and liased with on activities and lobbying, and the 84 candidates who agreed to New Yorkers for Parks' pro-Commons policies. Parks1 featured a vigorous media strategy, city-wide field operation, and direct political contact including a Mayoral forum. Some of his cutting-edge outreach tactics were reviewed at Personal Democracy Forum and here.
In 2004, Fred worked with 21st Century Dems' Young Voter Project "VoteMob" in Ohio. VoteMob featured innovative use of SMS, P2P, and FlashMob-style canvassing and viral volunteer recruitment which targeted Cuyahoga County voters under 25. This was a highly responsive demographic in Ohio which was called by many "the Silver Lining of Kerry/Edwards." Young Voter turnout increased an average of 90% across VoteMob's targeted precincts. Much of the rest of the state (and other demographics) didn't do as well.
Fred serves on the steering committee of Drinking Liberally and its umbrella organization Living Liberally. With Living Liberally, Fred developed a Swing State Project referral service in 2004 called "Do More Than Vote" which matched New Yorkers with the volunteer opportunities in NH, PA and OH that best suited them. In the 2006 Midterm elections, DMTV went national using the Drinking Liberally model.
He has presented his research and strategy innovations at conferences across the country, given trainings at camps such as NOI and he has published his research in journals such as "Person to Person: Harnessing The Political Power of Online Social Networks and User-Generated Content", Institute for Politics Democracy & The Internet - George Washington University.
Prior to his American political involvement, Fred worked with the London political debating society "Academic Inn" led by John Papworth, editor of London's Fourth World Review and author of "Small is Powerful" -- a book subtitled "The Future as if People Really Mattered" which informed his views of people-powered political movements.
Raised by a cup of coffee, he has lived in the West, the South and the Northeast; he worked in the DNC's "Rapid Response" War Room during the Republican National Convention; tangentially, he also worked at a New York City AIDS hospice, and in a previous life, he made do for years as a professional playwright, screenwriter, and actor.
