Remembering Silicon Valley For Obama is a 120-page book that recalls the experience of volunteering at Silicon Valley For Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign. It is told in personal terms through photographs and recollections by many of the individuals who were there. It contains 76 color photos (78 for hardcover), 66 stories by more than 40 individuals, plus an introduction and acknowledgements page.
There are three editions of Remembering Silicon Valley For Obama:
The premium paper is heavier than the standard paper, and generally feels better and will probably stand up to abuse better. However, I have provided softcover versions using either paper, as the standard paper version is less expensive.
We are using blurb.com to print the books. Blurb is the leading publish-on-demand photo book publisher and makes publishing a book like this in relatively low quantities possible and reasonably affordable. We are passing the Blurb pricing directly to you. There is no mark-up on the pricing offered by Blurb.
The pricing below is based on purchasing books one at a time. Therefore, this is the maximum you would pay by ordering one book at a time.
Hardcover, premium paper (purchased individually):
| Book: | $48.95 |
| Tax: | $5.17 |
| Shipping: | $6.99 |
| Individual Total: | $61.11 |
To purchase the hardcover version, click here.
Softcover, premium paper (purchased individually):
| Book: | $34.95 |
| Tax: | $3.87 |
| Shipping: | $6.99 |
| Individual Total: | $45.81 |
To purchase the softcover premium paper version, click here.
Softcover, standard paper (purchased individually):
| Book: | $29.95 |
| Tax: | $3.41 |
| Shipping: | $6.99 |
| Individual Total: | $40.35 |
To purchase the softcover standard paper version, click here.
Blurb offers discount shipping when purchasing three or more books at a time, and a 10% discount when purchasing 10 copies of the same book at the same time. I am not in the business of organizing book purchases, but if you are willing to organize a group purchase, let me know and I can send your contact info to the book mailing list.
In the spring of 2008, Atlantic senior editor Joshua Green visited the Palo Alto office of Silicon Valley For Obama. “It was a Friday morning in early March,” he later wrote, “and the circus had passed through town more than a month earlier, after Obama lost the California primary by nine points. Yet his headquarters was not only open but jammed with volunteers.”
“Soon after I arrived, everyone gathered around a speakerphone, and Obama himself, between votes on the Senate floor, gave a brief hortatory speech telling volunteers to call wavering Edwards delegates in Iowa before the county conventions that Saturday (they took place two months after the presidential caucuses). Afterward, people headed off to rows of computers, put on telephone headsets, and began punching up phone numbers on the website, ringing a desk bell after every successful call. The next day, Obama gained nine delegates, including a Clinton delegate.”
“The most striking thing about all this,” Green went on, “was that the headquarters is entirely self-sufficient—not a dime has come from the Obama campaign. Instead, everything from the computers to the telephones to the doughnuts and coffee—even the building’s rent and utilities—is user-generated, arranged and paid for by local volunteers.”
Aside from the words of encouragement from the candidate, Green captured a typical day at Silicon Valley For Obama (SV4O). By the time of the election, it had established itself as one of the most successful field offices of the presidential campaign. It sent 100 unpaid interns to battleground states. It staged four Camp Obamas that produced over 500 deputy field organizers. After record-setting phone bank numbers week after week, it produced a staggering 700,000 calls to prospective voters over the final four days of the campaign. SV4O transcended race, class and age. It attracted Democrats, independents, and even Republicans. Young and old, rich and poor, black and white, students and corporate leaders—they all worked shoulder-to-shoulder in a unified effort to elect Barack Obama the 44th president of the United States.
While many organizing activities took place there, the heart of the Palo Alto office was the phone bank. The stories in this book come from many of the volunteers who placed calls around the country, and supported and trained others in that effort.
This book isn’t a comprehensive history of Silicon Valley For Obama. The focus is on the Palo Alto office, where my own experience took place. And while SV4O’s impact was felt all the way back to the Iowa caucuses, most of these stories and photos date from the general campaign and, in particular, the heady November days of Get Out The Vote.
Nevertheless, I do hope this book represents the essence of what all of the SV4O volunteers did, why they did it, and what it meant to them. Something special happened here—something those of us who experienced it are not likely to forget.
Linda Adler (stories, photos)
Mishan Afsari (story, photos)
Barbara Berry (story, photo)
Bari Berry (story, photos)
Curt Bianchi (stories, photo)
Sue Bianchi (stories, photos)
Toiya Black (stories, photos)
Susie Brain (photo)
Susan Brochin (photo)
Owen Byrd (story, photo)
Anne Callahan (photo)
Brianna Campbell (photo)
John Cannon (story, photos)
Ed Canty (photo)
Karen Canty (story, photos)
David Carnahan (photo)
Ernie Chilberg (stories, photo)
Barbara Christiani (story, photo)
Kristin Clarke (photo)
Maurice Davis (photo)
Jono DiCarlo (photo)
Carolyn Digovich (stories, photos)
Melissa Dougherty (stories, photo)
Allie Douthit (story, photos)
Maura Dudley (stories, photos)
Evan Goldin (photo)
Robert Griffin (photo)
Connie Habash (story, photo)
Judy Harris (photo)
Elaine Hart (story)
Jay Henderson (story, photo)
Scott Herscher (photo)
Daniele Huerta (stories, photo)
Barb Hunt (photo)
Roger Hu (stories, photos)
John Jacobs (stories, photos)
A. Camille James (photo)
Laszlo Juhos (photo)
Arrin Kaplan (photo)
Kshama Kanakoor (story, photo)
David Karnahrens (photo)
Damani Kazembe (photo)
Barbara Kerckhoff (photo)
Bob Lawrence (story, photo)
Cesar Leon (photo)
Gregory Loew (story, photo)
Kristina Lindsay (photo)
Jayne Lipe (story)
Jim Liskovec (story, photo)
Sue Liskovec (photo)
Megan Maffei (photo)
Michael Marlaire (photo)
David Martin (photo)
Gail McFall (stories, photos)
Jim McFall (stories, photos)
Shabbir Nomanbhoy (photo)
Joyce Osagiede (story, photos)
Myra Orta (photo)
Raj Oza (photo)
Michael Putz (photo)
Swathi Rao (story, photo)
Mike Roberts (photo)
Steve Rosenblum (photo)
Irmgild Schack (photo)
Andrea Schloss (photo)
Rosemary Schmele (story, photos)
Giselle Schmitz (stories, photo)
Cecilie Schulze (photo)
Maureen Simons (story)
Rakhi Singh (story, photos)
Jen Smith (photos)
Carolyn Spitz (story)
Jane Stern (story, photo)
Marlene Strauss (photo)
Deb Strichartz (story, photo)
Mei-Hsia Tan (stories, photos)
Sallie Tasto (story, photo)
Jodi Trivers (photo)
Jana Vanesse (story, photo)
Connie Vincent (photo)
Avra Winograd-Hutner (photo)
Yiaway Yeh (photo)