You could tell who we were at the busy local Oakland, CA bar…
Matt had an anti-Arnold hat on, and more than one political button adorned his jacket…and I was the only guy in the place with a yellow legal pad.
We talked about Richard Pombo the scuzzy GOP congressman in neighboring CA-11, we talked about Jerry McNerney, Pombo’s 2004 grass roots environmentalist opponent, we talked about the upcoming vote on ballot initiatives and that day’s protest by Alliance for a Better California…
and we talked about the heartbreak that ABC wasn’t opposing Proposition 73, an anti-choice proposition that would change the California State Constitution to put in “life begins at conception” language, in addition to opposing Propositions 74-78…
but Matt had some other interesting things to say that I thought I’d pass on: thoughts about the state of organizing and the netroots today…
One lasting impression that I took from the conversation was this: Matt had been at an Anti-Arnold demonstration in Contra Costa county that day, you may have read about that demonstration here, in babaloo’s diary about it…and Matt had seen a women he knew from the Wellstone Club in Berkeley passing out hundreds of leaflets she’d copied herself. Now, that’s an activist!
The Wellstone Club in Berkeley has some truly great veteran activists full of insight and hard won pragmatic wisdom. But you likely won’t find them here, or on dKos or MLW. (And if they’re were here, how would we know?…think about it.) You won’t even find them on their blog. And though you are likely to see them at demonstrations like the anti-Arnold one last Wednesday…
the place you can find many activists online is in the world of Yahoo User Groups and netserve discussion boards. Matt pointed out how significant this was…and here I have to ask you to just imagine him yelling in a crowded bar over a beer…”I CAN’T TELL YOU HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS, DUDE…”….
Matt pointed out that like Democracy for America and MoveOn.org…the local Wellstone club’s primary means of reaching it’s members and activating them is email notification…and, yes, that often means, “over-email-notification”….novice moderators turning their “notify new comments” feature ON and flooded members email inboxes…argh.
Basically, what Matt was trying to get through my hardened “kossack” skull was that the addictive nature of “on-line” scoop discussion that we do here at BooMan was not something that millions of politically active people, especially those who aren’t super computer savvy, relate to or participate in. ie. There’s a TON of activism that is not really visible online to all of our detriment. It’s hidden in email lists and members-only discussion groups.
Further, since Matt and I were talking about these very issues…online organizing and how to actually find the local activism and activists and candidates we are concerned about, there is a flip side too.
We in the scoop discussion world, let’s face it, do our activism by, uh…running into a crowded room and yelling: LOOK AT ME!! LOOK AT ME!! ACTION UPDATE!! ALERT!! ALERT!!!
We surf from hot issue to hot issue. (can you say Obama) We are about conversation…very much about conversation.
You see, we have user names that don’t indicate…where we live. (and though for creativity’s sake I wouldn’t change that, could we embed something in the name display that would tell us that kind of info?) We have blog names that, as Chris Bowers pointed out, in an unfortunately titled but really essential essay…I’m not going to blogroll you, give no idea what they are about. We tend not to deliver organization and “actionable information” to our online peeps in a straightforward way, or, when we do, it’s in the form of diaries that scream rather than persuade and inform.
(Just to note here, I responded to Chris in that essay that my take would be to find a way to innovate so that the headline could read: “I am going to blogroll you.“…ie. to make blogrolls useful instead of irrelevant, to push for more, and more useful, online democracy, to get around this notion of “A-list” blogs telling puny blogs what to do…but that’s another story.)
There’s a reason that so much of our activism and discussion online in scoop based communities is ad hoc and helter skelter.
Like I said above, our websites are like the TV show CHEERS. We’re all running into the bar and trying to get our online friends excited about what we’ve got to say. That can be cool for building online community, but is no substitute for actually coming together and building some kind of structure, or at the very least, innovating ways to build that structure into the achitecture of our “bar.”
One of my cafe friends “Jerry from the Bronx” is a long time left-wing activist. He’s older now, but since he came up long before the anti-war movement….(he was a student activist fighting institutional anti-Semitism and racial segregation at City College in New York if that gives you an idea of the time frame he brings to it)…always says this to me:
The 60’s anti-war and civil rights struggles had the advantage of ready access to left-wing organizers. People who, for whatever reason, had their heads screwed on straight about organizing people to do things, to make things happen.
The secret was this, we didn’t have to invent the wheel every time we did something. We were able to work together and get stuff done.
What my conversation with Matt told me is that we are in a new moment of “inventing the wheel” and we’re still figuring out how to make this work, and maybe, laying down patterns that will last for a good long while. I thought, in the spirit of that conversation, I’d share our discussion with you and see if we can’t spark a few ideas of our own here on BMT.
As you can tell, I’m interested in these issues, and will follow up on them.
{this essay is a BoomanTribune exclusive}
especially since I live now in a rural area where you’ve got to do some traveling to get in large groups of people (I go to NYC for my people fix)…activism here is on a very small scale and it takes much travel to interact with 100 people. MY congressional district takes up all or part of four counties.
my point is, there is no better way for us to stay in contact than via the web. WHen it comes time to get together, we do, but it’s got to be highly organized and everyone has to show up…or a 50 mile trip can be wasted.
IN terms of national organizing, this tool is in it’s infancy and is going through growing pains…
However we here on the web do influence people indirectly. We bring up stories that filter to the main stream that gets into living rooms across the country. We raise money for candidates and causes…and we impact policy…sometimes.
Is this the be-all-end-all? No way, but it’s a tool. How we eventually use it is still to be answered.
we’re trying to figure out how to contact folks in just those communities…to find their blogs and clubs and groups.
You’re right, we’re inventing this….and online, whatever form it uses, is more efficient than driving long distances.
No substitute for face to face though, when you get right down to it. And, on some level,
the off line / on line intersect is THE political story for 2006.
Personally…I’m getting hooked up with some local blogs. The Mid-Hudson Alliance and Take 19 to see how we can cooperate to get things done.
This is not going to be an either/or, but an AND.
I’ll start off by saying that I don’t have a lot of experience with successful activism, but I’m not so sure the “old ways” work so well either. Sometimes I have hesitated to volunteer for political campaigns because I think that what they ask you to do is such a waste of time. For example, leaflet drops. NO ONE reads that stuff. You walk for miles putting ads on people’s doors that go straight to the trash. Direct mail…leaflets… all the same. And then you doorknock to try for a face to face – and no ones ever home. Those that are home, don’t want to spend time talking to you. Phone calling gets mostly answering machines. LTE’s?? I fear that the only ones who read them these days already have their minds made up.
So where do you go that you can actually have community conversations??? Where do people congregate these days??? The Republicans found a way to do this with their base – in churches. That will work for some in the progressive community, but leaves a lot of us out.
I got pretty involved with the Dean “meet-ups” and I think they really worked until he dropped out. His campaign’s letter-writing campaigns were pretty innovative too. Not direct mail, but a real letter from someone who gets to use their own words. All I know is that the Dean campaign came up with ideas for organizing (blogs too) that asked me to get involved in some innovative ways that actually seemed to have some impact. I also felt that I could find ways to use my particular gifts and skills, rather than being an automoton.
activism is incredibly powerful, but, I agree, it is not a “rote” activity. ie. you cannot fake it, and organization’s often do.
That being said, oftentimes the most effective activism has extremely boring roots. One of the most powerful things coming out of DFA was the move for folks to run for and win seats in their local Democratic committees. That was never the “biggest talk” at any given meet up, but the long term consequences of this work are enormous…ie. progressive activists are reshaping the Democratic party.
I think there has to be a mix of the “social”, the “conversational” and the “pragmatic.”
For myself, I would examine activism from the opposite angle. (ie. not where you feel disempowered, or where you feel it is least effective.) What if we look at it from the opposite angle:
What is it that Karl Rove and the GOP most fears us doing?
Probably not the kind of ineffective strategies you’re addressing. But forming local clubs, like Wellstone and DFA or Moveon.org, and then linking them up online…and tailoring their efforts to work more in harmony than not…well, now we’re talking.
In fact, Matt and I were talking about a project that I’m working on intended to do exactly what Rove doesn’t want to see happen. More on that one later…
yeah, that
/ But forming local clubs, like Wellstone and DFA or Moveon.org, and then linking them up online…and tailoring their efforts to work more in harmony than not…well, now we’re talking./
I had an idea about how to do this a couple of months ago but pushed it aside for two reasons: 1) I don’t have the money for the project and 2) I’m solely a Canadian citizen.
Here’s the idea: start a site that functions as “left wing central” – the grand central station of all things on the lefty sphere; a site that lists local to national activities, events, gatherings, groups, issues, mailing lists etc. that anyone in the US, or with an interest in the US left, can access daily for the most up to date information about what’s going on.
I don’t see it as a Scoop type operation or as a site for mucho discussion as the blogs are. Rather, it would function as a central organizing site for all relevant activities in order to encourage participation and inofrmation sharing.
What do you think?
Catnip, this is a great idea. An online yellow pages for left-of-centre political activism.
I hope someone jumps on this, and does it right. (I, like you, am disqualified for multiple reasons.)
It could be part of the herding cats initiative. 🙂
So where do you go that you can actually have community conversations??? Where do people congregate these days???
In our area, a group of people got together and formed a “citizens forum”, with the idea being to discuss topics like the Iraq war, where the economy is heading, etc, and how these things affect all of us, regardless of party affiliation.
So far, they have gotten a great response, with 100 people showing up at each of the 3 or 4 meetings they’ve had (the meetings are on Thursday evenings, with a $10 donation requested to help cover expenses). The first one was good, but after that, it struck me that they were trying very hard not to offend anyone who mght be a Republican, even though it didn’t appear that many pro-Bush folks showed up (judging by their questions for the speakers). It kind of left the discussion flat, and I think that it would have been better to have speakers who were frank about what they thought.
From my experience with this, though, there are a lot of people who are interested, but don’t know where to go for dialogue. If you create a community forum for discussion, people are concerned about where this country is headed, and they will show up to talk about it.
I think that it would have been better to have speakers who were frank about what they thought
Volunteer to be a speaker. 🙂
I just ask very frank questions, and watch the others nod their heads in agreement…and then they ask their own frank questions.
…and why is everyone talking about him?
You crazy Canadian! (No wonder I want to move up north.) 🙂
Only four beers? No wonder you guys didn’t figure it out!
I went to a seminar last spring for a project which I think has a lot of potential, the Central Coast Democratic Precinct Captains program. Unfortunately, it’s not a quick fix; but I think it lays the groundwork for a very strong and effective use of the grassroots.
As simply as I can explain it, each precinct has a captain who makes initial contact with Democrats in his/her precinct, initially NOT in the context of an election. Simply, “Hi, I’m your Democratic Party precinct captain. If you’re interested in getting involved in any election activities, I can direct you to contact people for various campaigns; I can get you bumper stickers, yard signs, you name it. And I’ll stay in touch and keep you posted on local issues.” The important point is that you are approaching your own neighbors, with the hope that they will come to know and trust you as, first, a neighbor and friend, and then, secondarily, as a political activist. Then, when election time rolls around, you can turn up the volume a little bit, do some phoning, offer to drive people to the polls, etc., but it’s all coming from someone they aren’t as likely to tune out. The areas in the Central Coast where they’ve been using this model for the last few years have experienced significant upticks in the number of Democrats turning out to vote. It’s really not that hard to do. An average precinct will have anywhere from 250-500 voters, maybe a third of them Democrats.
The real key to this operation is organization (which is where the Reps have excelled over the last several decades and the Dems have fallen flat on their faces). This particular program is being coordinated through local Democratic Clubs; ideally one person from the club is in charge of the precinct captain program, with a group of two or three people to assist. They then recruit precinct captains and provide support to them; i.e., walking lists, which can be customized with the CDs of voter data from the county elections department, voter information sheets, contact information for each campaign in an election, just about anything that needs to be funneled to the public.
Here’s where the news gets good, at least in the Bay Area, which I realize is not prototypical. But there has been a sea change over the last two years, which I attribute to a confluence of factors – the internet, Howard Dean, Wes Clark, Bush-nausea. People got fired up on the blogs; they went to work for candidates who had a good appreciation for the power of both the internet and the grassroots. When those candidates dropped out, the people stayed fired up, and they turned that energy toward the local power structure of the Democratic Party. We are taking over entrenched and tired Democratic County Committees, forming new Democratic Clubs and breathing new life into old Democratic Clubs. And that’s where I guess I see the confluence of the internet and the boots on the pavement: people in local clubs who filter information and ideas from the blogs and, yes, through local email lists get that information into a wider distribution.
The local stuff is really essential – or some kind of face-to-face person-to-person contact. I’m still in touch via some leftover from Dean campaign groups that have been working on running for Dem precinct rep seats, local candidates, etc. And as a Carleton alum, I have some contacts related to Wellstone activities. Some of these things have worked well, some of them not.
I went to a DKos area meeting a few months ago, and I have to say this very carefully. The folks there were smart, funny, politically savvy to varying degrees. A lot of time was spent discussing that blog itself, and who knew who, and who you were in that community, and if you were well known and if you knew the really prominent people. In the end, although it was fun, I was left with a rather empty feeling. I think I expected more focus on what we might be able to do because we were here in close proximity, but that was not being discussed or listened to when it was broached. It was more a center group of a few people, and many more around the edges.
To win this country, the edges have got to be moved in out of the shadows.
I could not help but think of the years I spent in Texas. What a contrast. Yes, Texas is a strange, strange, place. However, one of its secrets is the tendency of more politically concerned people of whatever ilk, to get together regularly for food and/or drink, and talk over a particular problem. Deliberately. Even if they aren’t part of the power structure. And that has produced a host of ready-made grass rooters, not necessarily associated with churches, by the way. But just through social contacts. It isn’t a perfect system, by any means, but it has accomplished a lot.
Here in the North over the past decade or so, the closest thing I’ve seen to this has been elements of the Dean campaign. However, it never worked well with the local Dem party, which retained its top-down model. And it replicated the terrible racism that infects this state.
The blogs have been a kind of hypnosis of free thought, a sort of fantasy world, of being able to communicate with people who are ungodly bright, creative, upset about the state of things, and motivated. It is also a bit too much of a distraction from the crumbling state and community that I live in. I can’t afford to stop dealing with the current, local reality, and the lovely writing, ranting, and commenting draws me away. The crux of the problem is how to engage some sort of local community to act on the closer range problems, with the same energy and “fizz” of the folks here — and build that to link together with other efforts until we have real movement in the Democratic party. [It’s not that I love the DParty, it’s just that I’m completely pessimistic about any other reasonable alternative.]
I don’t think the blogging by progressives needs to stop, but I think it needs a complimentary personal side along with the reading, writing, and commenting. Some of that was the chief benefit of the DC protest, among the Tribbers who went. Their writing indicated the impact of that experience. All of the hot air about the uselessness vs. usefulness of mass protests on the media, the country as a whole may have missed the greatest impact of the march: it was on the marchers. As Booman noted in his posting on that other blog where he linked to our diarists here, read them. See the effects.
I think good bloggs, that are large enough but not too large, may be able to build some of these networks through meetings regionally and locally. I don’t know, but I think that could help. Do we have a map of where Tribbers live?
Thanks for the idea factory, KO.
… as usual, making us do the thinking.
One thing that would be helpful is letting the real-world know the online world is not a separate planet. (Sounds like part of what you’re doing). Sometimes people forget the most-used application in the world is e-mail, and the reason: it is an exact analog to the USPS.
When time is crushed like it is for most people, you should never underestimate the power of a listserv or mailing list. As long as it is clear, informative, and used wisely it is an excellent tool.
Written before, the DNC, DFA, MoveOn and others likely have a good percentage of the same people in their databases. Setting up the simple “sort by zip” necessary for downstream, and headings for local, regional, State, and National necessary for upstream connects the dots.
As usual it’s not the technology, it’s the culture that needs change.
(obviously – I’m here, aren’t I?) but email is a much more effective organizing tool. One of our local activists (Glen Maxey, former state rep.) really impressed me with his emails last Fall. “We need __ people to do __ between _ am and _ pm on Saturday. Call __ for more info or just show up at _ Saturday.”
Usually got more people and more help than he knew what to do with.
OTOH, the local Dem party had a website, with an online “volunteer here” form that gave no specifics and no one ever called back the people who filled out the form. Pathetic.
Mark Strama (won his state rep seat last Nov despite being vastly outspent by his R opponent) gave a talk at DemFest last June about how he used a combination of emails and custom-tailored software on his web site to organize his volunteers. And win. (He is also a really great guy – the kind of progressive that those of us screaming -“Republican lite is a LOSING election strategy!!!” want to see more of.)
Emphasized the importance of compiling an email list – and of garnering the trust of people who are willing to give you their email addresses (NEVER share their addresses without their specific permission to do so!).
The software, written by a young student geek who worked for, as Mark put it, free pizza, was essentially a grid that people could get to by clicking an email link, see at a glance which tasks and times were not yet covered and sign up for one that fit their interests and time availability. See a transcript of Mark’s talk here with more info on how Mark used online tools to get elected. Really, go read, much good advice for aspiring activists and newbie politicos.
Also learned from one of the MoveOn guys at the media reform conference – rules for emails:
Clear subject line
Everything important should be visible w/o having to scroll down
Get to the point immediately
Ask for a specific action
Make the action easy (link, address, whatever)
Give people ways to help and get involved other than giving money.
Use the “scroll down space” in the message to elaborate the details for those who are interested enough – and have time – to read more.
Great comment, Janet.
But also: I don’t know why, but I just noticed for the first time the wonderful quotation from MLK, Jr. in your sig.
Wow!
Fits pretty well with the subject of this thread, doesn’t it?
(I have a little French, but I’m insecure enough about it that I had to Babelfish it to make sure I had it right. I did. 🙂
I think we sometimes believe in our echo chambers that we are the be all and end all and when someone like Obama tries to remind us that what he hears from the American people is different from what we think the American people should be feeling and thinking, we end up frustrated.
We need to remember that registered 60,000 members (and who knows how many of those are even active on dKos anyway?) is a very small number in comparison to the tens of millions of people out there in America. We, on the blogs, are focused but many Americans are only very vaguely informed about what’s really going on in Washington (a diary idea I had about one hour ago but which fits in well with your discussion here). We can’t be blind to the fact that not everyone is as laser focused on Bushco as we are. Thus, the only solution – in the face of an unhelpful press, is to take it local and make it personal.
Use what works and toss out what doesn’t. Stop criticizing the Dem leadership long enough to take some local responsibility to change things. Work for the principles you believe in and help your neighbours understand what those principles are. Look at what the Dem party is actually doing right (another diary idea of mine). Encourage the disillusioned to make the party and the country what they want it to be again. Show them how to do that in practical terms. Give the power back to the people by letting the people know that they must take it back through hard work and dedication. And on and on…
I’m glad you posted this diary because I think it’s important to move the dialogue along and focus on moving forward in a positive direction – not succumbing to the ever present obstacles, but taking advantage of the discontent out there to promote real change and optimism. If that doesn’t happen, all of that discontent is useless and self-destructive.
Good essay, sir. I have been reading many blogs lately. In fact when I finish my degree in History I am going for a Masters in Communication and intend to write my thesis on community weblogs.
It is my belief that community blogs are at best a neutral and possibly even a negative political influence, overall.
I surveyed people in swing counties of Ohio after 2004 and you might be surprised to know that many were completely angered by the incessant phone calling by MoveOn and others in the days leading up to the election. Some undecideds decided to stay home as a result.
I am planning to publish the results with my thesis.
It is my belief that community blogs are at best a neutral and possibly even a negative political influence, overall.
How so?
Some would argue the every minute blogged is another minute of campaign time wasted.
Think about this:
The only people that bother to read others blogs are people that are already in agreement in most cases. It’s like preaching to the choir.
Out in the real world is the most likely place to engage people in a real debate.
When the only debate on a Blog is: “How far left or right your own party should be?”… Well, you haven’t converted one vote to your side.
I said this to Armando when he was arguing with Boo in one of the diaries:
How many of the needed 60,000,000 +++ have you converted on your blog?
On your Blog you are reaching a bunch of sympathetic ears.
Blogs are great for creating tactics, figuring out bogus opponents stories, and creating new ideas, but you need to get out on the street to put all of this in to action in a meaningful way.
Yep! Every minute blogged is another minute of campaign time wasted.
Join a club… Start up a conversation at a bus stop… Convert them with subtle innuendo.
At the office tell a really good bush/rummy/gannon/delay/frist joke around the water cooler just loud enough for everyone nearbye to hear… Plant a seed of doubt with humor.
Face the facts: Not one bush supporter is coming to BooTrib, dKos, or any of the other Blogs that are “left” to learn what we think. Only the freepers do that! lol
A bit off-topic, but…
I went for my morning run with a Republican today. We had an interesting talk about the personal end of politics, and it was actually pretty eye-opening for me. This person had never heard of stop-loss orders (I explained it to her), thinks we can’t just leave the mess we’ve made in Iraq (although she agres that the present course of action doesn’t seem effective either) and thinks that as small business owners voting Republican is in her family’s best interests, among other things. I did say that I couldn’t understand why Republicans won’t back universal healthcare as an aid to businness, because it would save us thousands of dollars in premiums each year, which she agreed would be a good thing. But then the “trial lawyer/frivolous lawsuit” issue came up (via McDonalds coffee burn story). I pointed out that I was afraid that insurance companies would use settlement limits to avoid paying people who deserved the money for their injuries, and we both agreed that was something to be careful about.
By the time I got home, I realized that she votes Republican based on old-school moderate Republican ideals, and doesn’t realize how that has been completely corrupted by the religious whackjobs and corporations over the past several decades. I was amazed at how, even though she said she doesn’t usually watch the news, she knew all the Republican talking points. Any opposition party has to start working their talking points into the national pysche the way the Repubs have.
Sorry for the long comment…
I was amazed at how, even though she said she doesn’t usually watch the news, she knew all the Republican talking points. Any opposition party has to start working their talking points into the national pysche the way the Repubs have.
Sorry for the long comment…
That is precisely what I am talking about. If you get out there and tell them about these issues and the reason you think that way, they start to think.
Stop Gap is still pretty much a small story. The media covered it, but buried the issue even though it is still there and unsolved.
Universal health-care can easily be shown as a winner for big corporations and small businesses. Just look at Toyata building it’s new plant in Ontario, education was one issue, but they also cited the fact that Canadian employees are about $4.00 cheaper per hour because they don’t have to deal with financing health care for them. Say what? Corporations LOVE universal health care? Yep… Good education and health care makes good businss sense.
Little things are picked up through the republican spin networks, and the talking points just start circulating, and get re-inforced in the news.
And Liberals let them do this while arguing amongst themselves over non-issues on the net all too often.
I was on a binge to memorize his talking points, and make business cards with them on there. Let’s see. OK, I couldn’t think of one. Ask me in a week would you? Really going to do it this time.
http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/projects/strategic/
This is so vital, for us to get these down. BTW, congrats to you for hangin’ with a Republican, and being reasonable enough to converse.
I believe most people, including most of those who now oppose the war in Iraq, are also not in favor of leaving Iraq, just like your friend.
This includes many Democrats who saw the War as wrong from the start, but do not see pulling out now as a realistic or positive alternative.
The rationale of many people, such as Madman in Marketplace, pushing for a more demonstratively left Democratic Party is that we are the majority, and use the poll numbers regarding the War as one of the proofs.
In fact, I am pretty sure that the current non support of the Iraqi War does not necessarily mean the majority of the nation is turning left.
Yet.
Interestingly, though, the same people who say “We can’t just leave it the way it is,” agree that the present course of action isn’t working. When you put forth the idea that the cultural differences between western and muslim nations are part of the problem, and that perhaps we should involve some Arab nations in trying to resolve the civil war the US has created in Iraq, they think it seems like a better idea than merely staying the course. Incidentally, my friend was surprised to hear that Iraq has gone from having 3 battle-ready battalion in June to just 1 of them at the end of September, and was hard pressed to explain how that was progress.
From the people I have talked to, “we can’t just leave” has more to do with recognition of the terrible mess the US has made of that country than any real belief in the reasons given for going to war.
FWIW, I don’t like the term “left” because of the way it’s been co-opted to mean hippy fruitcake; I think progressive is a more accurate description of what I believe.
What are your fellow college students saying about the war?
My friends are all negatory, but of course we are all glad we dont have to face the draft, like dad did, so its more of a distraction for us than a real issue.
Most of us are worrying a lot more about graduation, paying off our growing student loans, finding a girlfriend/boyfriend, wheres the party this weekend, pretty traditional college kid stuff I guess.
Left to me connotes action based upon a long history of fighting for the common man.
Progressive connotes no real meaning to me. Sort of mushy and politically correct but uninspiring.
Plus left is quicker to type.
You argue that every minute blogging wastes one minute of campaign time. I think that this principle is demonstrably false.
Blogging is the apotheosis of an opt-in activity. By moving some discussion from an e-mail list to a blog, you might have three people reading and participating in the discussion instead of three hundred. But if the 297 others were completely disinterested in the discussion, and if each had to take a minute to deal with the e-mails they weren’t interested in reading, then you have saved 297 minutes. If each of the three blog participants each spend an hour, they have taken up 180 minutes. Even assuming that nothing of value was said on the blog, you have still saved 117 minutes, or almost two hours of time.
Here’s a real life example. I have spent probably close to ten hours reading a discussion about a proposed bylaw change in the California Democratic Party. This discussion occurred on a number of private listservs, simultaneously. I just saw a blog post yesterday about these proposed changes, and it was clear to me that the author had only heard one side of the story, so I e-mailed him and summarized what I consider to be the crux of the issue. If the discussions had occurred on a blog, it would have taken me something like ten minutes to find the links and send them to him. However, because e-mails in a listserv are often somewhat decontextualized from the the issue they cover compared to blogs, I wasn’t able to find an e-mail that explained the issue in full. So I spent over two hours all told writing and responding to four different volleys of e-mail with the blogger whose post I responded to. If the authors of the e-mails had instead simply posted to a blog (which would not have taken any extra time since they wrote the e-mails in any event), I would not have had to spend so much time dealing with this issue. Again, blogs would have saved time.
I could go on. I think you get the point.
Well, it is just my belief, not yet supported by enough evidence.
However, I see community blogs as a way for people to express their disgust with the current leadership, a kind of safety valve for the system, a way to let off steam without having to truly engage in activism.
Blogs main function politically seems to be in fund raising, which helped the Democrats in 2004, but it is difficult to determine how much help at this point and where that help led to electoral success.
Also, I believe that the Democrats need to focus more on local issues and local races in order to rebuild a winning national party.
Community blogs are essentially nationally focused.
I also plan to research the impact of MoveOn.org and similar web based political organizations to determine if their actions in 2004 were helpful/neutral/hurtful, particularly in the swing states as exemplified by Ohio.
My initial research indicates undecided voters in Ohio were inundated with phone calls from people associated with MoveOn and community blogs in the days leading up to the election, and a significant number were turned off, not on, by all the calls filling their answering machines.
for another great post, and for raising the level of the conversation.
email groups and I get a ton of email that I mostly ignore. But occasionally I scan for interesting information and occasionally I send out my own information. I think it is important these links. How we can use them to the fullest is a very interesting question as most of them only relate to the group and not to outer world issues.
Myself, years ago I thought it would be very useful to know where people were from. You’ll never guess what I did about it.
I consider the blogs to be my center for information; sort of like the ‘training program’ in the Matrix Movies, even with an occasional judo showdown. 😛
After I feel comfortable enough with a topic, I take the info to my friends at the bar or my colleagues at the water-cooler. Last year I harassed several people to register to vote, which they did, but it took some prodding for them to realize that politics does matter in their lives. While the five or six votes for Kerry didn’t swing Az to the blue category, we were that much closer.
I don’t think I would’ve felt comfortable enough to raise awareness in these ways if I wasn’t active here or on other sites. The jist of my rambling: arm yourself with the info, then go out and do some progressive jujitsu voter-by-voter.