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Cool graph illustrating the rise of the filibuster in Congress in the last 100 years. A curious quirk of our legislative process, as it turns out.

Part of series of fascinating political (and a myriad of other random) infographics from ILoveCharts.

Hundreds have already registered, and the press from around the state has been completely excited!

Here’s a sampling of some of the articles we’ve worked to get published about the ride. And don’t forget to sign up for emails, become a fan on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter for the latest in gear giveaways, photo contests, and much more!

Route announced for Pedal the Plains bike ride across eastern Colorado
Brush News Tribune

Pedal the Plains announced
KSIR

Governor announces route of Pedal the Plains tour
Co 5 CBS

Governor announces route of Pedal the Plains tour
KGWN Cheyenne

Governor to announce Pedal the Plains tour
NBC11 News

Route announced for Pedal the Plains bike ride across eastern Colorado
Burlington Record

Pedal to the Plains starting, finishing in Yuma!
Yuma Pioneer

Pedal the Plains bike tour coming to Colorado in September
Out There Colorado

Pedal the Plains
Rocky Mountain Community Radio

Pedal the Plains route announced
Lamar Ledger

Governor Hickenlooper announces Pedal the Plains route to travel Yuma, Wray and Burlington area
Journal Advocate

Gov announces route of Pedal the Plains tour
KKTV

John Hickenlooper announces “Pedal the Plains,” bike race set for September
Westword

Hickenlooper announces route of Pedal the Plains tour
KMGH Denver

Cyclists excited for ‘Pedal the Plains’
CBS Denver

Route announced for Pedal The Plains bike ride across eastern Colorado
Denver Post

Gov. Hickenlooper announces Pedal the Plains bike tour to highlight eastern Colorado
Denver Post

Pedal the Plains 2012 route announced
Mile High Buzz

Pedal the Plains route announced
Colorado Farm Bureau

It was our pleasure to lend a hand and help Andrew and the Steck community get some attention from the local media. We also want to thank the reporters and photographers who came out for such a good cause.

To date, we know that the “Kids 4 Kidneys” project has succeeded in reaching at least several individuals have volunteered to be tested to see if they are a donor match.

We continue to wish the best for Andrew, and will be following his story closely.

At two press conferences on Friday — one at the state capitol in Denver, and one at the headquarters of race sponsor Vaiero on Ft. Morgan — community leaders (including Governor Hickenlooper, Denver Post owner Dean Singleton, State Senator Greg Brophy, and US Pro Cycling Challenge CEO Shawn Hunter) made the formal route announcement for the tour. Check the PTP Facbeook page for pics and video of the event.

OnSight Public Affairs built the web site for the event, is managing social media accounts, and is helping organize event logistics at all levels.

Pedal The Plains is a one-of-a-kind cycling event celebrating the agricultural roots and frontier heritage of the Colorado’s Eastern Plains. This event is a ride designed for riders of all speeds and sizes.

The three-day ride, scheduled for Sept. 21 – 23, will showcase the host communities of Yuma, Wray, and Burlington. The event will also include a family cruiser ride as well as a 120-mile timed Gran Fondo, co-branded by the US Pro Challenge.

Along the way, riders will have the opportunity to connect with locals in towns along the route and the host towns we’ll be visiting each night. There will be food and entertainment (with a focus on local providers for both) and opportunities to learn about and connect with local history, culture, landscape, and wildlife. From barn dances and barbecues to on-route tours of working farms and historic frontier battlegrounds, there’s plenty to do on and off the bicycle seat.

Event proceeds will benefit The Denver Post Community Foundation as well as Future Farmers of America, 4-H, and Rural Solutions.

Friend Pedal the Plains on Facebook

Follow Pedal the Plains on Twitter

Facebook’s biggest medium is photos – over 200 million are uploaded to Facebook every day. The biggest bonus Facebook gets for its billion is providing a value added service to its users to share more individual photos, increasing the appeal of Facebook timeline and make it easier for people to share photos. Bottom line: sharing cool stuff we’ve seen or created is ideally what it’s all about.

Even if a few of Instragram’s 30 million users do unsubscribe in a hasty huff, the acquisition is still a pretty significant bump for Facebook, which is clocking in at 800 million subscribers, but facing diminishing returns, having fairly well saturated the US social media market.

For all the buzz, it’s interesting to note that email, not social media, is sill the number one most-used tool for sharing content. More content is still shared via email than by any social media platform, Facebook included. (Exception: high schoolers, for whom Facebook just edges out email as the sharing tool of choice). An email is still tops in terms of timeliness, as well – 91% of people check at least once a day, which is more than any social media application sees.

They don't make cards for twins!

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We want to wish OnSight Public Affairs Senior Strategist George Merritt and his wife Liz a double-dose of congratulations for the birth of their twin daughters Sarah Bell and Eleanor Day. The girls joined the world on February 17th, and are happy and healthy and getting to spend some quality time with their proud (but exhausted) parents, not to mention making headlines.

Our best wishes to the entire family!

Getting different constituent databases to talk to each other is harder than tracking down the mythical unicorn of the sea.

There’s some pretty interesting and innovative stuff helping marketers and media managers get messages to the right audiences.

First, a story on the Obama re-election team’s Project Narwhal. As anyone who has worked at a non-profit or corporation that maintains databases (e.g., every organization and non-profit, everywhere) knows, getting all your customer or constituent information all in one place is a difficult and evasive task. Different systems track payments, donations, volunteer actions, inquiries, help requests, and demographic data. Getting all that information in single, consolidated, user-friendly system is neigh impossible – different individuals – even different departments – have ownership of that data, and they’re not always willing (or even able) to share.

From the article:

Even as the outside world marveled at their technical prowess, Obama campaign staffers were exasperated at what seemed like a basic system failure: They had records on 170 million potential voters, 13 million online supporters, 3 million campaign donors and at least as many volunteers—but no way of knowing who among them were the same people.

But Project Narwhal attempts to tackle this disconnect and create the mythical sea unicorn of voter databases:

 Narwhal would bring new efficiency across the campaign’s operations. No longer will canvassers be dispatched to knock on the doors of people who have already volunteered to support Obama. And if a donor has given the maximum $2,500 in permitted contributions, emails will stop hitting him up for money and start asking him to volunteer instead. Those familiar with Narwhal’s development say the completion of such a technical infrastructure would also be a gift to future Democratic candidates who have struggled to organize political data that has been often arbitrarily siloed depending on which software vendor had primacy at a given moment.

Good news for all our friends holding office and running campaigns, for certain, not to mention a great way for voters themselves to be kept up to speed on specifically the issues they care most about.

In related news, a new billboard in the UK is using facial recognition technology to determine your gender, and then changes the content of the ad itself depending on who it thinks you are:

Women who walk up to the billboard, which is located at a London bus stop and will be viewable for two weeks, are greeted with a 40-second film explaining the plight of women and girls in poor countries around the world, who often are denied eduction and opportunities that are afforded to men.

Men, however, get a cut-down version of the content. They can’t see the film, but they do get to see shocking statistics about the situation, like the fact that 75 million girls are denied education.”

Actually a pretty clever application, given that the intent of the ad is to highlight different in the way men and women are treated in a circumstance much more serious and life-changing than a bus stop billboard.

The ride is set to take place September 21st to the 23rd, so it will be a nice wind down from all of the big summer events, and a great way to discover a part of Colorado that is often overlooked.  The best part?  Onsight has been hired to work on the branding, website and communications for the project.  We are very excited to get another great bicycling event as part of our growing place in the sports and bicycling world!  We have some really great plans for this race that will make it a truly unique event for Colorado.

Stay tuned for updates on the progress of the development of this exciting new event.

The placeholder website allows signups for updates on registration and events related to the ride.  Go there to sign up: http://www.pedaltheplains.com

While CLBA has done a great job on Facebook in the past, we also reworked their Social Media campaigning and developed new strategies to make sure they are getting the most out of their time in the social networking world.  It was a pleasure working with Jeanne, and she was gracious with her compliments of our work:

“It doesn’t get any better than this! OnSight’s creative, team-oriented approach consistently produces results for CLBA. They guided us through an overhaul of our brand, built us a new website, and make sure we are successful under the gold dome year after year.”

Click the screenshot below to visit the new site:

It’s never easy to explain nuance through earned media, so George and the campaign sought out significant community stakeholders to help relay their message.

In all, the measure was criticized by Gov. John Hickenlooper, small businesses and most of City Council. The Denver Post opposed the measure and chastised the proponents’ tactics. Mayor Michael Hancock not only opposed the measure, he was featured in this ad opposing 300 (the spot was produced by The Kenney Group).

The support of Mayor Hancock and others proved to be a big win for local shops and businesses in Denver. The measure failed with 64 percent of voters saying ‘No.’ The Post’s political blog “The Spot” called result a big win for the Mayor here:

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock took a risk when he became the public face behind the effort to defeat Initiative 300, the Denver ballot measure that sought to provide paid sick leave for workers throughout the city.

Hancock’s predecessor John Hickenlooper had a virtually unblemished record of success in supporting winning ballot measures — including light rail, Referendum C, the preschool tax and Denver’s Better Bond Program.

Hancock cut a humorous/Hickenlooper-type television advertisement against the ballot initiative, which ultimately got drubbed at the polls on Tuesday with 64 percent of voters saying “no.”

“There is no overstating the role that he played in this campaign,” said George Merritt, spokesman for the opposition campaign, Keep Denver Competitive. “Small businesses are reticent to get involved in politics. To have a representative who could articulate the trouble and flaws of this initiative was critical.”