Which consultans built Romney’s Project Orca? None of them
The truth, according to sources familiar with the matter, is that the applications powering Orca were developed by an internal “skunkworks,” one made up of both campaign staffers and volunteers—not by a big-name consulting firm.
According to Federal Election Commission filings that we examined, the Romney campaign spent over $40 million on technology vendors. Targeted Victory, the firm founded by Romney’s Director of Digital Zac Moffatt, was the biggest single beneficiary of that spending, receiving more than $14 million as of the end of October. That money was both payment for its own social media consulting and development work, and for “pass-through” IT spending that went to other contractors such as Rockfish Interactive (the developers of Romney’s running mate announcement mobile app).
The investment in Orca, however, was a tiny fraction of the campaign’s IT spending. Sources tell us the Romney campaign tried systems similar to Orca during the Republican primaries, but on a much smaller scale. To prepare for the general election, the campaign pulled together a makeshift team of IT people and volunteers, and it was this team that built the full version of the Orca Web app and developed the backend systems to power it.
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Failure is an orphan.
DavidW on November 16, 2012 at 2:03 PM
The dead horse says please stop beating me.
JPeterman on November 16, 2012 at 2:06 PM
Only Success (and Anna Nicole Smith’s baby) have “heroes” clamoring to be the father.
Ladysmith CulchaVulcha on November 16, 2012 at 2:07 PM
Yes, we get it. It didn’t work. Now fix the damn thing (step one, make it an actual app that someone downloads), and give it to the RNC and spread it wide and far. It would be an excellent tool for election day+early voting GOTV if it worked properly as it would get the information to the people quicker than they older ways..
Zaggs on November 16, 2012 at 2:08 PM
*applause*
kim roy on November 16, 2012 at 2:09 PM
Romney Campaign RIP 2000-2012
Can we please stop visiting the Grave?
portlandon on November 16, 2012 at 2:17 PM
FLS Connect is terrible, too, as those of you who are veteran campaigner surely know.
Liberty 5-3001 on November 16, 2012 at 2:18 PM
Yeah, I have to agree with the “who cares” sentiment of the other commenters. Orca didn’t work. We get it. That’s not WHY Romney lost the election.
change is for suckers on November 16, 2012 at 2:22 PM
Whitewash , it wasn’t the only colossal failure in the campaign.
How come team marx beat team cut throat capitalist?
the_nile on November 16, 2012 at 2:23 PM
It’s one of the reasons he lost. It was a glaring management failure.
It has to be analyzed and addressed.
the_nile on November 16, 2012 at 2:25 PM
I dunno, maybe, just MAYBE you should test your GOTV software before election day. Maybe you should have people download it ahead of time. Heck, maybe you should even teach people how to use it before election day.
I mean, who thought it was a good idea for volunteers to spend minutes on election day downloading software?
Meanwhile, over at Obama’s technology center: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2012/11/everything-you-want-know-about-tech-nerds-who-won-obama-has-been-written/59082/
hawksruleva on November 16, 2012 at 2:26 PM
This turd ain’t mine moment.
Sams88 on November 16, 2012 at 2:26 PM
A single app won’t work in every state because each state has different rules as to what can happen in a polling place.
The ORCA app deployed for the election was designed to work in a polling place where the user was sitting close enough to the voter sign-in location that they could hear the name of the voter as they checked-in. In that scenario, there would be plenty of time to look up the voter’s name with the app and mark them as voted.
In states like NV, where electronic devices aren’t allowed, poll watchers sit too far away to hear the name but are provided with a printed list of who voted every two hours, the ORCA volunteer had to check voters off an ORCA provided printed list (if they got it,) then go outside to use the app.
Since the ORCA list also provided a unique two – four digit code for each voter, it was far quicker to simply record the identifying code when working through the list, then go outside to enter the codes via a regular cell phone, i.e., 454#3456#72#, etc
I was able to enter 50 codes in five minutes, whereas it took another person nearly an hour for an app user to enter the same number of voters.
Reno_Dave on November 16, 2012 at 2:29 PM
It’s at least half the reason Romney lost. 1) Romney got defined early on by negative ads.
2)Romney’s Get Out The Vote effort was not nearly as good as Obama’s.
The reason the GOP polling models were wrong is because they underestimated Obamas GOTV effort, and overestimated their own.
Boring, technical, behind-the-scenes details are what wins. Blocking and tackling, if you will, is what leads to victory. And Romney, Mr. ‘I’m a Professional’, didn’t take care of the details as well as Obama did.
hawksruleva on November 16, 2012 at 2:30 PM
Because throughout history marxism always cut more throats than capitalism.
Valkyriepundit on November 16, 2012 at 2:35 PM
Shocka! No one claims responsibility for “floater” released in Boston pool. News at eleventy!
Ladysmith CulchaVulcha on November 16, 2012 at 2:40 PM
My guess is that Bain didn’t do much IT consolidation and integration after they bought/merged companies.
If they did, Romney would be well aware and well versed in all these types of common IT problems.
faraway on November 16, 2012 at 2:54 PM
I participated in Orca. At first I was impressed, then I was like WFT? The nightly “conference calls” were just meaningless fluff. The “packet” they sent out was a complete joke. You almost got the sense they put zero effort into it and that they wanted to lose.
In retrospect, the Romney Campaign was extremely amateurish. Worse than Dole in 1996. Just pathetic all around.
Norwegian on November 16, 2012 at 3:03 PM
Romney sure knows how to waste money. We sure he wasn’t a Democrat?
besser tot als rot on November 16, 2012 at 3:10 PM
I agree. Most important, the clowns responsible need to be banished from significant roles in future campaigns.
BuckeyeSam on November 16, 2012 at 3:45 PM
HondaV65 on November 16, 2012 at 3:45 PM