Politics: Binding through the Net?


The Dean Connection (New York Times, free registration required) describes the Howard Dean internet grass-roots campaign, complete with blogs-with-comments, meetups, distributed news research by volunteers, etc.

<quote>... responsiveness is the essential sound of the Dean campaign. It is embodied not only in Dean himself, but also in the blog, which creates the impression of a constant dialogue between supporters and campaign staff, and in the organizing on the ground. </quote>

The article quotes Zephyr Teachout ("she darts around the office in a pair of silver shoes with the balletic, boyish energy of Peter Pan"):
<quote>''the revolution,'' as she calls it, has three phases; the first is Howard Dean himself, the second is Meetup.com and the third is the software that Rosen, Johnson and Brooks [Dean's hackers] work with: Get Local, DeanLink, DeanSpace. ''DeanSpace,'' Teachout says, ''is the revolution.''</quote>

GetLocal "helps organize local events independent of the campaign". DeanLink is really Deanster, a version of Friendster , binding Dean-related nets of friends of friends. DeanSpace knits together information being generated and distributed through multiple web sites.

Most intriguing quote, by Gray Brooks, who does GetLocal: <quote>But the strongest thing was that I could tell he is a good man. And if a good man were president, it would change everything in ways we can't even imagine.</quote>

Posted: Wed - December 10, 2003 at 11:34 AM      

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