Politics & Technology | May 2003 »
Howard Dean & Meetup.com
In NYC two weeks ago, over five hundred people showed up at a bar to talk about Howard Dean. What was remarkable was that the event wasn't organized by Dean for America, but instead by a website: Meetup.com. Joe Trippi, Dean's campaign manager, said to the NY Times "I've never seen anything like that, with no advance people, totally self-organized by a bunch of citizens." Once they crossed the 300-person threshold, the campaign made a decision to send the candidate himself.
Fairly new to the scene, Meetup tries to connect people in local places with similar interests (not just politics). In Portland, already 130 people have signed up to be notified of the next Howard Dean meetup on April 2. You can bet that Meetup is the vanguard of a new kind of grassroots organizing - spontaneous, bottom-up, and Net-centric. Ladies and gentlemen, here comes the future...
Read the NY Times story: "Like Online Dating, With a Political Spin," March 13. (free registration required)
Also:
DeanForAmerica.com
Meetup.com
This item was originally posted at MandateMedia.com on March 27, 2003.
Kari Chisholm | March 27, 2003 | Comments (0) |
Everybody's a Journalist
Someone once said, "On the net, no one knows you're a dog." And while that might make online dating an adventure, it's also changing the face of journalism, commentary, and politics. The "blogging revolution" is underway. 'Blog' is short for 'weblog' - a sort of online diary chock-full of links to things of interest to the author. Sure, like most of the net, there's a lot of crap, some of it from lifelong members of the Beltway chattering class. But, real people are starting blogs - and gaining readership.
Yesterday, the Oregonian ran a story about blogs - and completely ignored some of the more fascinating local commentary. So, I'll point to a few that I've found fascinating, if only occasionally weird:
Bojack: a blog from Jack Bogdanski - a Lewis & Clark law professor. Jack talks about politics, Portland, and (sometimes) bad Boomer music.
Mars or Bust: a pair of Portland women with lots of Portland reaction to the war and protests.
Webfeet, The Oregon Blog: I'll just quote today's dispatch...
"It's a tired old saw, but: lack of funding + glue-sniffing yokels (the Oregon legislature) = Oregon. In the news today, more horrors. Judicial backlog mounts, but the legislature and Governor aren't providing any more money. The schools are in the toilet, and the legislature...isn't providing any more money."But richies? For them, there's more money. Legislators are hard at work trying to get rid of the meager bit we already have. After all, the richies need their tax cut. They needed it when times were good, and by god, they need it now.
"Makes a person want to go protest ..."
So, here's the question: Will blogs change politics? Certainly, it seems to me that blogs are changing journalism. Even ABC News, MSNBC, and Slate are running blogs now -- but it's only a matter of time before a major candidate starts keeping a daily diary online. Maybe presidential candidate and obsessive diarist Senator Bob Graham?
This item was originally posted at MandateMedia.com on March 27, 2003.
Kari Chisholm | March 27, 2003 | Comments (0) |
Street Protests Go High Tech
It's been a little odd, watching the protestors downtown outfox and outwit the Portland Police. It seems like they're always one step ahead, crowds of thousands turning on a dime when the cops confront the leading edge -- how can the back of the crowd know what's happening ahead?
Well, it might look like an unruly mob - but it's anything but. No one's talking numbers, but something like hundreds of folks signed up for the Protest Text Message Service. How did it work? People on the scene sent messages like "PEPPER SPRAY ON STEEL BRIDGE" to a central dispatcher - who broadcast them via cell phones, pagers, and wireless PDAs to everyone else on the street. Over 120 messages were sent in the eight hours during in the day-of-war protest.
Learn more about Portland's Protest Text Message Service
Read the messages broadcast on March 20
This item was originally posted at MandateMedia.com on March 27, 2003.
Kari Chisholm | March 27, 2003 | Comments (0) |
Live and Uncensored from Iraq
As media coverage of the war heads into it's second full week of 24/7 news and commentary, Slate magazine has provided instructions on how to get Iraqi State Television on your computer. It takes a little technical futzing (since it's a satellite feed web-cast via Dutch TV supposedly only for residents of the Netherlands) but it only took me 5 minutes to work out. Of course, just because it's Saddam's official message doesn't make it interesting. It's mostly like public access - only with guns. Personally, I can't stop watching.
This item was originally posted at MandateMedia.com on March 27, 2003.
Kari Chisholm | March 27, 2003 | Comments (0) |
