TNR on the netroots phenom
Ryan Lizza in TNR has an extensive article about the use of the Internet by Dean's campaign. It rightly identifies Joe Trippi as the visionary but goes out of its way to give the grassroots self-organizing phenomenon its due as well. Congrats to fellow DeanBloggers Ezra Klein and Matthew Singer, for their mention in the piece! (I'm now officially jealous ;)
The article is comprehensive and it's clear that Mr. Lizza is actively reading this blog for his research. The article lauds the DDF and the obsessive nature of the Dean Blog - calling us Dean fedayeen for our zeal (it's a compliment. I think) An especially interesting passage is the campaign-eye view of how Meetup became significant to the campaign:
In fact, Deanlandia is directly responsible for the rapid rise of Meetup as an organiztional asset to the campaign - Dean Meetup was first mentioned on the Dean Blog on January 12th, after a tip from William Finkel. We should all reflect for a moment at how far we have come, and just how much influence we really wield. This is the real reason Dean has built such a following - becauise we all sense that by our actions, however minor, we can really have a significant impact. It isn't just about Dean's personality or even his issues. It's the fact that we all feel like we have a real voice.
The article is comprehensive and it's clear that Mr. Lizza is actively reading this blog for his research. The article lauds the DDF and the obsessive nature of the Dean Blog - calling us Dean fedayeen for our zeal (it's a compliment. I think) An especially interesting passage is the campaign-eye view of how Meetup became significant to the campaign:
For the Dean campaign, it all started with the Meetup phenomenon. Back in January, the campaign stumbled upon the Meetup website and noticed that 432 people were signed up for a Howard Dean Meetup group. "We didn't really know what it was," says Trippi. He watched from afar as Dean's Meetup numbers grew to more than 2,600 in February. In March, Dean showed up at a Meetup event in New York City. It was so crowded that hundreds of young supporters were pouring out onto the sidewalk waiting to get in. Soon the campaign began receiving mysterious donations with an extra cent added. They learned that the Meetup community intended to raise $1 million for Dean, and the extra cent was being used to identify the donations. It became known as the Meetup Million Dollar Challenge and has raised at least $300,000 for Dean so far (close to 10 percent of what Dean had raised overall, as of April). Almost overnight, Meetup had become the Dean campaign's most important organizing tool.
In fact, Deanlandia is directly responsible for the rapid rise of Meetup as an organiztional asset to the campaign - Dean Meetup was first mentioned on the Dean Blog on January 12th, after a tip from William Finkel. We should all reflect for a moment at how far we have come, and just how much influence we really wield. This is the real reason Dean has built such a following - becauise we all sense that by our actions, however minor, we can really have a significant impact. It isn't just about Dean's personality or even his issues. It's the fact that we all feel like we have a real voice.
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