Justin Oberman, on Personal Democracy Forum, analyzes the recent Newsweek article in which Joe Trippi talks about “How Text Messaging Could Change US Politics:

Can a teen trend be turned into a weapon of choice for politicos hoping to energize their constituents? Some strategists are betting it can: “Where 2004 saw the great blog campaign, we’re likely to be talking about the great text-messaging campaign of 2008,” says Joe Trippi, who, as Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign manager, was a pioneer in the use of the Internet as a fundraising and organizing tool. “The technology is right on the cusp of becoming very big.”

If this sea change does take place, Jed Alpert is likely to be riding the wave. Alpert is the president and CEO of Rights-Group, a wireless entertainment company which runs POLITXT, a service aimed at helping politicians and interest groups tap the potential of the text-message. Until about a year ago, Alpert worked exclusively in entertainment marketing, using cell-phone services to promote the likes of Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears. In one popular promotion, fans could provide their phone numbers and pay to receive text messages and voicemails from Spears–”Next time I have a party, you’re totally invited,” the singer might say.

Alpert soon realized the political potential of this kind of marketing, particularly in its capacity to gather names. Names, Alpert says, are the new currency of political mobilization. The advantage of text messages when it comes to name gathering–over, say, e-mail–lies in the likelihood they will be opened. While 15-25 percent of solicited political e-mails are opened, the open rate for text messages is nearly 95 percent. When Alpert translated his Britney-model of text-marketing to the political circuit, he met with instant success. The lobby group People for the American Way (PFAW), where Alpert volunteered his service on a trial basis, reported that 25-30 percent of people asked to call their congressman via text message responded, as compared to the 2-3 percent success rate they had been getting with e-mail requests.