Wired discussion from Friday
Quick wrap on the almost self-explanatory discussion on the two articles from Wired that we had on Friday:
The story on Howard Dean and his campaign, which transcended digital boundaries, was ant theory, pure and simple. A little-known governor suddenly became a major-party presidential candidate because of the power of word of mouse. I'm surprised that no other politician (that I've heard of) hasn't tried to copy the decentralized model of Dean's campaign. True, as Dr. Carroll pointed out, the Bush campaign was run in a more traditional, bureaucratic fashion, and the asshole ended up winning (excuse my French). Also, as Josh pointed out, there is a relatively small cross-section of voters that are internet-enabled and thus would be able to further the campaign. Still, the fact that the web was so successful for Dean -- up to the fateful "Dean Scream" night at the Iowa primary, which didn't have anything to do with his campaign strategy -- and that he and his campaign people basically stumbled onto it as a means of getting their message across, makes me wonder why someone else hasn't at least given it a shot. What have they got to lose?
The second article: Explained the concepts behind Moveon.org. Great idea. It's been wildly successful; with 2 million people joining. There are a very few people who actually initiated it, which is a good example of the net's power to connect people. It's not affiliated with any candidate, which could be a big reason why it's so popular. I almost expect conservatives to counterattack with www.staythesame.org. (that's not a real link so don't click on it).
Ba-dum-ching!
The story on Howard Dean and his campaign, which transcended digital boundaries, was ant theory, pure and simple. A little-known governor suddenly became a major-party presidential candidate because of the power of word of mouse. I'm surprised that no other politician (that I've heard of) hasn't tried to copy the decentralized model of Dean's campaign. True, as Dr. Carroll pointed out, the Bush campaign was run in a more traditional, bureaucratic fashion, and the asshole ended up winning (excuse my French). Also, as Josh pointed out, there is a relatively small cross-section of voters that are internet-enabled and thus would be able to further the campaign. Still, the fact that the web was so successful for Dean -- up to the fateful "Dean Scream" night at the Iowa primary, which didn't have anything to do with his campaign strategy -- and that he and his campaign people basically stumbled onto it as a means of getting their message across, makes me wonder why someone else hasn't at least given it a shot. What have they got to lose?
The second article: Explained the concepts behind Moveon.org. Great idea. It's been wildly successful; with 2 million people joining. There are a very few people who actually initiated it, which is a good example of the net's power to connect people. It's not affiliated with any candidate, which could be a big reason why it's so popular. I almost expect conservatives to counterattack with www.staythesame.org. (that's not a real link so don't click on it).
Ba-dum-ching!
posted by Jeremy and Ashley Wood at 11:33 AM
1 Comments:
dean was the forerunner, true, but kerry/edwards quickly followed suit. bush remained alone in running a top-down, military-style campaign, a model he's stuck with in the white house, for better or for (mostly) worse.
and i might be misunderstanding you, but dean's web-based strategy was anything but unintentional. joe trippi was the mastermind behind a very deliberate, very sophisticated empowering of the grass roots and a decentralized approach. to say something is decentralized is not to say it is chaotic or random.
finally, conservatives have indeed fought back and with a mighty vengeance. conservative bloggers are abundant, and multiplying like rabbits. Memogate was a light shone on the embrace by conservatives of the blogosphere, which often offers some of the same advantages of talk radio, which of course conservative discourse also dominates.
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