Information and Knowledge Management using ArcGIS ModelBuilder

Vered Holzmann and Ben Holzmann
Total Eligible Voters
Candidate X
Supporters
Undecided
Actual Voters
Not Interested
Candidate Y
Supporters
Figure 1: The political campaign arena
3. Data and information management in a political campaign
Davenport and Prusak (1998) defined knowledge as “a fluid mix of framed experience, values,
contextual information, and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating
new experiences and information” (p.5). The framework of a political campaign follows the
development of the accumulated data, which normally include discrete objective facts, transferred into
information that provides quantitative and qualitative measurements, further transformed into
knowledge, which can be utilized in the process of making strategic and operational decisions
(Spiegler, 2003). Throughout the campaign lifecycle, knowledge is generated in order to provide the
required background for making managerial educated decisions. The process starts with a file
containing basic data that is distributed to all the contenders. On this common ground every campaign
builds its unique information system that contains archived documentation of past events, relevant
accumulated knowledge and current information procedures that can be developed into management
tools.
This original database includes normally only the following items: voter ID, first and last name, current
address, and phone number. Although some philosophers raise potential ethical issues regarding
citizen privacy (e.g., Onselen and Errington, 2004) the database is distributed to all the contenders
and is used by the parties to effectively identify and reach supporters. It provides the basis to enrich
the official information with additional data such as mobile phone numbers and an e-mail address,
used to create the preliminary connection with the voters and to initiate a relationship with them. The
data relating to the volunteers who are probably one of the major assets of every campaign and
represent the core resource used to promote the agenda established by the candidate (Shaw, 2000),
is more detailed and usually contains the following items: (1) personal information including
demographic status; (2) list of communication means such as phones, e-mails, and Internet social
networks; (3) areas of interests, which might range from a hobby such as basketball team fans to
social activity membership such as PTA (parent-teacher association), or an association to a
professional network such as a specific law firm. This extensive volunteer related data joined by an
intensive operational network are used to generate knowledge in the form of profiles defining
homogeneous groups of friends or groups with common interests that can be approached utilizing
related unique issues.
The database of voters merged into the database of volunteers is used to further identify clusters of
voters that share common attributes or concerns that can be motivated to support the candidate
based on issues that are not necessarily the major concerns advertized by the candidate but are
rather subjects important to the particular group leader, hence, the members vote for the candidate as
a curtsey to their leader. The target is to create small groups of voters that can be approached and
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