Blue State Digital

Infobox Company
name = Blue State Digital

type = Private
foundation = 2004
location =
key_people = Jascha Franklin-Hodge, founding partner and chief technical officer
Thomas Gensemer, managing partner
Joe Rospars, founding partner
Ben Self, founding partner and program director
industry = Consulting
homepage = [http://www.bluestatedigital.com/ bluestatedigital.com]

Blue State Digital is an Washington, D.C.-based Internet strategy and technology firm based in The company was founded in early 2004 by four former staffers of Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign: Clay A. Johnson, Jascha Franklin-Hodge, Joe Rospars, and Ben Self. They are involved in providing custom Internet applications and communications strategies to Democratic political candidates and organizations and non-profit organizations. Clay left the firm in late January 2008, leaving just three founding partners.

Blue State Digital was a recipient of the "Fast Company" magazine's "Fast 50" award in 2006.

The company has provided a variety of technology and services to the 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign, including online fundraising, voter outreach, social networking, and Web hosting. [ [http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_27/b4091000977488.htm BusinessWeek: Obama's Secret Digital Weapon] ]

2007 "Hillary Clinton 1984" YouTube video

A former employee of Blue State Digital, Philip de Vellis, admitted to having created a widely-circulated video, "Hillary 1984," that edited clips from the Hillary Clinton campaign into the famous 1984 television advertisement by Apple Computer. In a blog entry posted on The Huffington Post, de Vellis indicated that he had resigned from Blue State Digital. [ [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/phil-de-vellis-aka-parkridge/i-made-the-vote-differen_b_43989.html Phil de Vellis, aka ParkRidge47: I Made the "Vote Different" Ad - Politics on The Huffington Post ] ] The company later released a statement claiming that they had terminated his employment. De Vellis stated in an interview with the Associated Press that he had created the video from home and that Blue State Digital had nothing to do with its creation.

The Obama campaign released a statement stating: that it had no knowledge of and had nothing to do with the creation of the ad De Vellis did claim that he helped design the Obama website [ [http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-hillary23mar23,1,6087155.story?coll=la-news-a_section Ad creator claimed role in Obama campaign - Los Angeles Times ] ] . And de Vellis lived with Senator Obama's press secretary in 2006 [ [http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=2977670&page=1 ABC News: Anti-Clinton Ad Maker Lived With Obama Staffer ] ] while they were both working on Sherrod Brown's campaign for Senate.

References

External links

* [http://www.bluestatedigital.com Blue State Digital] - Company website
* [http://www.bluestatedigital.com/2007/03/on_the_1984_video.html] - Hillary Clinton '1984' ad explained at Blue State Digital website
* [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/phil-de-vellis-aka-parkridge/i-made-the-vote-differen_b_43989.html Phil de Vellis admission] - The Huffington Post
* [http://www.Hillary1984.com Hillary 1984] - video
* [http://www.phorecast.com/2008/10/06/phorecast-podcast-no-10-obama-the-choice-of-the-net-generation-interview-with-thomas-gensemer-blue-state-digital/ Podcast interview with Thomas Gensemer, Managing Partner at Blue State Digital, 2008]