FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

TECHNOLOGY MAKES A LEFT

San Francisco design studio puts interactive politics on the map as Fahrenheit 9/11 heats up.

  

For a directory of screenshots from this event, please click here.

SAN FRANCISCO, June 28, 2004 – Stamen Design, located in San Francisco’s Mission district, is churning out online, interactive maps for liberal political heavyweights MoveOn and Pro Choice America. Their most recent effort with MoveOn,“Turn Up the Heat”, an online town meeting with Michael Moore, launches tonight.

"MoveOn approached us to create a 'national conversation' surrounding Michael Moore's recent movie Fahrenheit/911," says Eric Rodenbeck, founder of Stamen. "In the past, they used conference call systems when they wanted to have virtual meetings with large numbers of their members, but it turns out to be wildly expensive to have thousands of people on the same phone line, and it was essentially just a one-way method of communication. They were looking for a way both to talk to their members, and have their members talk back to them. That's where the online maps come in."

Stamen developed a live, map-based, interactive Q&A session that allows thousands of people to communicate visually via a moderated discussion. Visitors logging on can "see" themselves and their submitted questions on the map, along with those of other MoveOn community members. Michael Moore, along with MoveOn directors Eli Pariser and Adam Ruben, will respond to active polls and answer questions from the online audience. The effect is both compelling and empowering. "If you can see yourself on the map, so much the better, because you can identify yourself as part of a large group of Americans all working towards the same thing," says Michal Migurski, Stamen's Technical Lead. "You can get an immediate visual picture of just how widespread MoveOn's membership is, and immediately connect with that community."

Last April, Stamen designed an online candlelight peace vigil for MoveOn allowing visitors to upload their photographs throughout the night, directly coordinated to their location on the map. "[The maps] gave a real sense of 'happening' to our online campaigns. Reporters visited these online "anti-war" rooms and immediately understood the message we were trying to get across. And people were really impressed by the pure virtuosity of these web applications." said Wes Boyd, co-Founder of MoveOn.

It wasn't long after the third MoveOn project that Stamen designed a map for ProChoiceAmerica.org, to help generate a sense of community around the March for Women's Lives event in Washington, D.C. in April. "So we’re now the 'Map Guys,'" says Rodenbeck, "I don't mind. We've made the transition easier for new maps by using the existing code base, instead of building it over and over," an efficient move for this busy boutique design firm whose client list includes BMW, Macromedia, and Microsoft. "We feel really lucky - it's great to mix business and politics," Rodenbeck adds. "MoveOn is doing some of the most important work there is in this highly charged election season, and working with them lets us make a difference as well as stretch what's been done with online interactive spaces. Plus, the maps're fun as hell to make."

About Stamen:

Creative Director Eric Rodenbeck was born and raised in New York City, where he studied theoretical architecture at Cooper Union. After completing his degree in the history and philosophy of technology from the New School of Social Research, Rodenbeck moved to San Francisco in 1994 and founded Stamen Design in 1997. The Stamen technical team, headed by Michal Migurski, is a leader in web-based data-driven experience design and interface development. The studio's reputation as a maverick, eager to extend the possibilities of interactive experiences on the web, has a attracted a growing client list including BMW, MoveOn.org, Macromedia, Microsoft, ProChoiceAmerica.org, and DesignworksUSA.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

EVENT INFORMATION:

Parties in the Eastern U.S. will start at 8PM Eastern time/7PM Central time

Parties in the Western U.S. will start at 8PM Mountain time/7PM Pacific Time

More event information may be found at http://action.moveonpac.org/f911/