Proposed LIBLET System

Introduction

Scenario

Databases

Current Media

Discussion

Proposal

Contacts

This is an automation and extension of the LIBLET system that has fitfully been managed and supported by Libertarians since 1995. The workload on the national Distributor was so severe that burnout was swift. Automation has long been contemplated, but on 2/15/03 Aaron Starr called seeking a way for the LPC to earn money from published letters pledges as a way to motivate letter writing and distribution as well as earn money for the Party. This proposal is the result of that discussion.

New Participant

1. Adds himself to the Users database
2. System confirms unique Member Number.
3. System checks for valid Member Number immediately if LOCATEM exists and operation is allowed or periodically if only batch interaction is allowed or LOCATEM does not exist.

Existing Participant

1. User enters Member Number.
2. If authorized, system displays New Letter, Distribute Letter, Report Letter Publication, View Publication Statistics and View Receptivity Statistics options, else asks for reentry of Member Number.

New Letter

1. Author adds one record to the Letters database, pastes its text into the field available, and clarifies letter.
2. System computes number of words in the letter.
3. Repeats for each letter authored.

New Distributor

1. System finds media that distributes to Participant ZIP code, and displays list sorted by media venue, and includes search form with media name field in case displayed list is insufficient.
2. Participant selects/finds one media.
3. System displays media detail.
4. Participant selects "My media" button or returns to the search results page to select another media.
5. If a media is selected, system creates one record in the UserMedia database.
6. Repeats until Participant has selected all the media of interest.

Distribute Letter

1. System displays list of letters not distributed to the media associated with the Participant.
2. Participant selects a letter.
3. System displays letter detail for review.
4. If participant wants to associate his contact information with the letter and distribute it, he selects a "Agree to distribute" button.
5. System associates Participant UserID with the appropriate LetterMedia combinations and Distributed to "Yes" so subsequent Distributors will not send that letter to that media.
6. Repeats until the participant is done selecting letters to distribute.

Report Letter Publication

1. System presents search form with media name and first twenty words of letter field.
2. Reporter selects letter-media combination from found set.
3. System displays letter for verification.
4. If correct letter, Reporter enters publication date.
5. System advises Reporter to cumulate clippings and mail them monthly to the address shown in order to get pledge credit.

View Publication Statistics

1. Participant enters first twenty words or less of letter.
2. System displays corresponding list of letters.
3. Participant selects letter.
4. System displays letter for confirmation.
5. Participant selects Show Publications.
6. System displays list of media that published the selected letter and the found count (total). This would determine pledge earnings by author. Assuming monthly pay periods, the funding organization would search for letters posted the prior month and get the publication statistics for each one. This can be automated such that the results are emailed to the organization and each Author each month.

View Receptivity Statistics

1. Participant enters name of media.
2. System displays corresponding list of media (normally one if exact match).
3. Participant selects media.
4. System displays media detail for confirmation.
5. Participant selects Show Receptivity.
6. System displays list of letters published by the selected media and the found count (total). This would determine which media are deserving of Libertarian support (ads, promotion) and which should be the subject of embarrassingly disdainful press releases.

View Distribution Statistics

1. System displays list of letter-media combinations to which Distributor committed and for which a publication has been reported, and the found count (total). This would determine pledge earnings by Distributor. Assuming monthly pay periods, the funding organization would search for letters posted the prior month and get the publication statistics for each one by Distributor. This can be automated such that the results are emailed to the organization and each Distributor each month.

This scenario may not accurately reflect the reality of implementation in its entirety, because there a some situations that may not be possible as proposed. This is a first cut, so there are no doubt some missing steps or steps in need of clarification. Please advise Bill Holmes.

Letters

Fields

LetterID

AuthorID

Relates to LOCATEM PersonID to get name, else name

AuthorEmailAddress

AuthorID relates to LOCATEM PersonID to get email address, else email address

LetterText

LetterTextShort calculation

OriginDate

TargetAudienceType (liberal or conservative)

TargetAudienceVenu (city, county, state or national)

NumberOfWords calculation

 

LetterMedia

Fields

LetterID

MediaID

DistributorID

ReporterID

CreationDate (publication date)

Distributed - Default = No

Relationships

LetterID to Letter

MediaID to Media

DistributorID to Users

ReporterID to Users

Scripts

When a new letter is added, create one record for each media appropriate for the letter

 

Participants

Fields

ParticpantID

Name

EmailAddress

ZIPcode

Relationships

ParticipantID to Letter

 

Media

Fields

MediaID

Name

EmailAddress

Distribution (USA, State list, County list, City list, Area Code list or ZIPcode list)

 

Users

Fields

UserID

PartyMemberNumber

UserName (automatic if connected to LOCATEM)

UserEmailAddress (automatic if connected to LOCATEM)

Author (for notification purposes)

Distributor (for notification purposes)

Reporter (for notification purposes)

 

UserMedia

Fields

UserID

MediaID

This is a first cut, so there are no doubt some missing fields. Please advise Bill Holmes.

Fields

Organization

Name

Title

Street

City

County

State

Country (foreign papers love to print negative letters about the U.S.)

EmailAddress

WebAddress

AreaCode

FAXPrefixAndNumber

VoicePrefixAndNumber

FAXNumber calculation includes area code if not local

VoiceNumber calculation includes area code if not local

PrefixDistributor

AreaDistributor

StateDistributor

ComunicationType

Email, FAX

Localization

City, County, Issues regarding Institution or response to published material, Members, None, Special, State

Letters

Yes or No

Articles

Yes or No

PressReleases

Yes or No

Receptivity

Known or unknown if no reply to surveys

Media type:

Broadcaster

College publication

Computer publication

Cultural publication

Education publication

Ezine

Individual

Magazine

News Service

Newsletter

Newspaper

Comments

 

Records

601 have no email address, but have FAX numbers. 181 of those also have voice numbers. The voice and FAX numbers can be used to get email addresses if they are available. 6 have neither email addresses nor FAX numbers, but have voice telephone numbers that can be used to get email addresses. All the rest of the 1310 media in the database have email addresses. Do to localization constraints, I limit my distribution to 194.

Merge

If a database of media with distribution ZIP codes is acquired, a merge/purge of my media data base should be conducted to the get most media. That would entail requesting of all of mine not in the acquired database their distribution by ZIP code.

No doubt more to come via email to Bill Holmes.

If included with the LOCATEM proposal, add a month of work for development, because I can leverage the LOCATEM Users database, and a month for documentation. Use the factor of four multiplier if done part-time.

Aaron Starr, Libertarian Party of California (LPC) Chair

M Carling, programmer friend of Starr (more?)

Bill Holmes, Webmaster and Web-enabled database developer