Outsourcing and offshoring can really come back to bite you in the ass if you're not careful. In the case of the Romney campaign, it seems like all of its vaunted Orca project should have been considered a strategic effort.

Instead, the Romney campaign did what many corporations have done in tight times—it kept its IT budget in check and heavily outsourced technology relative to its budget, keeping only a few strategic efforts in-house.

If the parties are smart (something they rarely show evidence of) they would be developing these systems now, long before the pressure of a campaign and keep them online for continual development and testing. Once the nominee is selected, those resources would be made available to the candidates team instead of having to reinvent the wheel every four years. 

Reshared post from +Koushik Dutta

Romney's flopped "Orca" project possibly built by Best Buy?

Well, that explains that…

Can we ever have too much copyright protection?

Yes. The Federal government has gotten way too big, and our copyright law is a symptom of the expansion in the size and scope of the federal government.

_Today copyright law is seen by many as a form of corporate welfare 
that hurts innovation and hurts the consumer. It is a system that picks winners and losers, and the losers are new industries that could generate new wealth and added value.  We frankly may have no idea how it actually hurts innovation, because we don't know what isn't able to be produced as a result of our current system._

In fact, it's not about the growth of big government, it's about the evolution from a democracy into a corporatocracy where big business interests control the levers of power. 

Reshared post from +Lauren Weinstein

The House Republican Study Committee issued a remarkably interesting brief on intellectual property yesterday — then suddenly withdrew it it today!   Why?   Follow the money!  In any case, I preserved a copy of the original report, and have marked it so that there can be no confusion about the fact that the RSC has disowned it (see below for RSC letter): http://lauren.vortex.com/WITHDRAWN-Republican-Study-Committee-Intellectual-Property-Brief.pdf
– – –
From: Teller, Paul
Sent: Saturday, November 17, 2012 04:11 PM
Subject: RSC Copyright PB 

We at the RSC take pride in providing informative analysis of major policy issues and pending legislation that accounts for the range of perspectives held by RSC Members and within the conservative community. Yesterday you received a Policy Brief on copyright law that was published without adequate review within the RSC and failed to meet that standard. Copyright reform would have far-reaching impacts, so it is incredibly important that it be approached with all facts and viewpoints in hand. As the RSC’s Executive Director, I apologize and take full responsibility for this oversight. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and a meaningful Thanksgiving holiday…. 

Paul S. Teller
Executive Director
U.S. House Republican Study Committee
Paul.Teller@mail.house.gov
http://republicanstudycommittee.com

Reshared post from +Dan Gillmor

House Republicans liked the idea of serious copyright reform, but it looks like they also report to Hollywood when push comes to shove.