techPresident - Emergent Democracy - Comments

Barack, Please Lead the Movement

wadehudson — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:07:37 -0500

by Wade Hudson

Many Obama supporters are worried about what kind of organization will emerge from the campaign. Those who are concerned have included top-level leaders from the campaign who have expressed themselves publicly.

Barack can resolve this issue quickly and easily. He can simply tell his staff to spin off an independent organization that is truly dedicated to community organizing. I encourage folks who support this direction to let Barack and/or his people know.

Then we can proceed to build a strong national movement committed to helping Barack implement the goals of his campaign. Without such a movement, we won‘t be able to “transform the nation, “ as Barack called for during the campaign.

Marshall Ganz, the architect of Obama's grassroots organizing program, is among the concerned. On Nov. 17, he told Micah Sifry, “It's very important what Obama decides. Whether to try to support some kind of organized effort, that's rooted in the campaign, or not."

To read the full essay, see http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/11/29/17755/619/548/667623

Delighted to join in the conversation, and ...

JonPincus — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:02:34 -0400

One thing I'd really like to encourage people is to spend a lot more time actually engaging deeply in this new hyperconnected activism. I've been looking at Facebook activism campaigns, and it's shocking how little attention is being paid to these in the technology and political blogospheres -- and how dismissive the coverage is (e.g. Scoble's dissing a 5-to-10 million person Facebook activism movement in the post proudly proclaiming his elitism).

Just wondering ... how many of the people involved in this conversation this have been active in a Facebook-based campaign, and on a wiki, and using Twitter? I don't just mean joining a group, or tweeting a couple of times, or blogging about it. I mean jumping into it, investing some time, rolling up your sleeves and getting to work. Mark's point about becoming more powerful each time is a good one: shared experiences, better tools, richer networks. So get involved!

And for those who don't have the time: none of us do. Instead, approach it as re-investing some of your already-budgeted activism and blogging time. If you're an Obama supporter, spend a few hours helping with the Million Strong Money Bomb -- and if you're planning on donating anyhow, throw in a few bucks to help the cause. Or if you're a blogger interested in voting rights, get involved with the Election Protection wiki and the Voter Suppression wiki and think about how to integrate it with the other topics on your blog. Etc. etc. The opportunities are out there.

So yes, I think it's a great conversation to have. I just hope people don't let talking substitute for doing. Change is performative.

jon

filters, PLEASE

dmonasg — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:33:29 -0400

You've nailed the essential conundrum that I think the world of social media is still far from solving. I'm so overwhelmed by information that, try as I might, I can't bring myself to use Twitter. I'm enthused by some tools that are out there for searching and sorting through Twitter, but for the most part, it's all I can do to get through my feed reader each day - I don't have time to wade through the noise of inane tweets.

The flip side, of course, is that social media is opening doors to vast new worlds of collaboration, and I'm optimistic about the prospects for the kinds of filters and other technologies we need to facilitate it.

To your final question, I'd love to join in this conversation.

Dan Goodman
monazzji.blogspot.com

Great Post...Wish I Could Have Finished It

cbrumfie — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:52:30 -0400

This seems like a promising post, one that can cure me of my Internet ADD. Unfortunately, about three paragraphs in, Twhirl dinged me and told me I had six new tweets, and some of them were very interesting. So, I couldn't finish the article.

But, great start!

Why keep the president?

faregone — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 11:43:51 -0400

What is the point of having a vast democratic community but keeping a single person as the all-powerful ruler?

Projects like the Metagovernment are making leadership-based government obsolete.

Wiki Government possible NOW

eggy1943 — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 04:09:04 -0500

There are many new social software which allows people to interact and process Initiatives, submit to government and pass legislation via Referendum.

I am constructing such on my website below, please check it out.
The UK and European Union are already doing it. Why the USA lags is likely the present politicians do not want to disturb their money barrel.
Bruce

doinggovernment.com
Initiative and Binding Referendum for US

Three cheers for true deliberative groupware

davidfarrar — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:28:27 -0500

Finally, somebody is actually talking about ways to turn endless forum chatter into real deliberative decision-making.

Mind you, as I have said before, "Real, online deliberative meetings can't really overcome the tyranny of distance or take advantage of the wisdom of crowds without successfully adopting Robert's Rules of Parliamentary Order to the Internet. Do I have any takers?

ex animo
davidfarrar
The National Online Party

Good idea, but poor implementation

habib — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 19:04:04 -0400

There are a number of major flaws with the sight that I think will prevent it from succeeding. For starters, users are only able to make positive votes, they cannot vote against. Furthermore, users can only comment on issues they have voted for, which has caused a number of users to vote for issues they are against so that their voices can be heard. Furthermore, there are no tools for actual dialogue. This is a half-hearted attempt at best and might do more harm than good for the concept.

This is a really interesting concept

bradlevinson — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 16:52:24 -0400

I remember during the Dean campaign, he said something along the lines of, "wouldn't it be great if the President of the United States had a blog?"

This is far more interesting -- Digg meets Topix meets Hot or Not, I suppose -- but fairly original.

Focus groups at the click of a button and direct dialogue -- extremely interesting.