IT helped Barack Obama win the 2008 US presidential election and the SNP has used it to great effect, while it was deployed by both sides in the Brexit referendum.
Now, the latest version of a software package called NationBuilder is set to be used by the Yes movement’s new national membership organisation – which The National can reveal will be launched in early February
The National can also reveal that, following a clash with a group over the use of the name Yes Alba, the organisation is understood to be choosing a different style of designation altogether.
For now, the group and their supporters are calling it the New National Membership Organisation (NNMO).
Among those supporters are the Scottish Independence Foundation (SIF), which has given its biggest-ever grant, said to total four figures, to the NNMO to purchase NationBuilder.
Unlike other controversial data mining software packages, the NationBuilder software uses only information that is in the public domain to assist in political campaigning.
The founders in the USA describe it as “community engagement software”.
The NNMO hopes it can make the difference in getting the Yes cause over the line. Once fully operational, the intention is that NationBuilder will be available for use across the Yes movement.
Former MP and National columnist George Kerevan is one of the 15-strong committee driving forward the NNMO. He explained how “a very significant grant” from the SIF had enabled the group to buy the software.
“NationBuilder was the software that helped the SNP win the Holyrood election in 2007,” he said. “It’s the world’s top political organising and data-mining software.
“It’s the kind of weaponised software that was used in the Brexit referendum, and now for the first time the Yes movement has got comparable software to fight an independence referendum.”
Kerevan explained that to get NationBuilder ready for campaigning, it required many volunteers to go online to learn how to use it and undertake activities such as keying in data.
“That’s why we have been held up with our launch,” said Keveran, “which we had hoped would happen this month but which now looks like happening in early February.
“We want to have a top website for the new organisation, and I am delighted to say we have had assistance from top Scottish production houses to make videos.
“We already have all our processes up and running but have to test them to make sure it is the best it can be. Once we have it fully operational we will want to get the whole Yes movement involved.”
The Scottish Independence Convention (SIC) said yesterday: “We welcome the development of NNMO: their co-ordination of independence activists across the country will be a vital part of the wider independence movement.
“SIC looks forward to working with NNMO in the coming weeks to strengthen case for independence.”
SIF chief executive, Greg McCarra, said: “We have given grants and other support to pro-indy groups throughout Scotland since early 2018, and this is one of our biggest commitments.
“The recent Independence Awards – run in conjunction with The National – were about recognising the excellent work of pro-indy groups and individuals, and spreading their good practice. The finance for NNMO adds new dimensions to that work, in that we want to see greater co-operation between groups, and an increased role for individual members within groups.”
SIF stated: “The first grant to NNMO from SIF helped pay for website design to allow integration with the pre-eminent campaigning platform, NationBuilder – used in Barack Obama’s first campaign to propel him into the White House. Hopefully history will repeat itself and it will help propel Scotland towards independence.
“The most recent grant to NNMO has been to help produce membership packs, which many Independistas will be signing up for shortly.”
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