asterisk users - Jul 2004 - Kerry/Edwards campaign and VOIP

I am trying find a way to help the local Kerry campaign and it occurs to 
me that VOIP and Asterisk could be a big help.  I have never worked on a 
presidential campaign before but I think they must be very telephone 
call intensive.  Using VOIP to connect local, regional and national 
campaign offices and to keep volunteers in touch with each other would 
save lots of money that could be spent on other things.

Unfortunately anything that would be useful has to happen very quickly.  
Does anybody think it would be possible to build and ship preconfigured 
* servers to local campaigns quickly?  Would it make more sense to use 
preconfigured ATA's from somebody like FWD or Sipphone?   Is it too late 
to look at this?

Thanks.
Bill

Bill Merriam [lists@billmerriam.com] wrote:
> I am trying find a way to help the local Kerry campaign and it occurs to
> me that VOIP and Asterisk could be a big help.  I have never worked on a
> presidential campaign before but I think they must be very telephone
> call intensive.  Using VOIP to connect local, regional and national
> campaign offices and to keep volunteers in touch with each other would
> save lots of money that could be spent on other things.
>
Yes, like more balloons.  You can never have too many blue and white
balloons on a US presidential campaign.  Voters like to see lots of
balloons falling from the ceiling at the end of every speech.  You
need to be aware that voters are not so keen on red balloons, so you
can save millions by not buying any of those at all.

Balloons aside, it's also important to save some money for a team of
lawyers.  If your candidate loses then it's apparently possible to get
appointed into office without all of the vote counting and other
tediousness associated with a free democratic election.

-- 
   _/   _/  _/_/_/_/  _/    _/  _/_/_/  _/    _/
  _/_/_/   _/_/      _/    _/    _/    _/_/  _/   K e v i n   W a l s h
 _/ _/    _/          _/ _/     _/    _/  _/_/    kevin@cursor.biz
_/   _/  _/_/_/_/      _/    _/_/_/  _/    _/

Bill Merriam wrote:
> I am trying find a way to help the local Kerry campaign and it occurs to 
> me that VOIP and Asterisk could be a big help.  I have never worked on a 

Bill,

You'll find that the FEC has VERY strict guidelines regarding things 
like this.

John