I-think does CanDoTeam website for Newman
25 March, 2008
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Brisbane's re-elected "Can Do" Lord Mayor Campbell Newman successfully campaigned on the slogan "Can do more".
One of the things that did "do more" in his campaign was his website www.candoteam.com.au, designed and built by Internet Thinking in its collaboration with The National Forum, Australia's premier producer of websites for not-for-profit organisations and politicians.
The site was built using open source content management system Joomla.
Executive Director of Internet Thinking Graham Young said that Joomla was perfect for the job because it is flexible and scalable.
"A campaign site may need to change radically during the course of a campaign. It may also experience high loads when a campaign hits a particularly 'hot' button.
"Having built a number of citizen journalism sites using Joomla we were confident it could handle the traffic.
"We also knew it was flexible, which meant we didn't have to worry too much about the transaction costs of changing display options."
Mr Young said that the site was built with all the tools required to engage with voters including blogs, forums, polling and email newsletter lists.
"Modern campaigning is becoming more about communication rather than just tapping supporters for money and time. Campbell was prepared to make discussion threads available on the bottom of all news items and press releases.
"That is a significant advance on what the standard research-driven campaigns generally allow where going "off-message" is the worst sin that a candidate can make, and all efforts are made to avoid being cross-examined or ambushed by crotchety constituents.
"I think Campbell's openness was one of the reasons that he did so well.
"Certainly the website was designed to reinforce the image of a mayor who doesn't mind getting involved, can listen, and is committed."