I hope we can have better models for connected activism.

Let us not forget a strong aspect here, where millions of dollars in grassroots contributions were poorly spent, transfered to *media* *companies*, with a nice commission for the ringmaster running the circus.

This is an old story, and it's not a good story.

There were many dedicated supporters in Wisconsin. Folks have speculated that some of the strength of the last-minute Edwards surge came from Republicans. (On the other hand, voting Democratic can be a very nice habit.)

The Dean campaign sponsored shuttles to get out the vote-- and did not use those shuttles to "preach" about Dean. We were all impressed with the professionalism of his very young staff.

Hope is contagious, particularly in times of despair. Dean leveraged the internet as a new vector for hope. However while a campaign might better distribute hope, more hope needs to be produced.

Producing hope involves harvesting the hidden aspirations of those who feel unheard. This requires listening. The Dean campaigned listened to comments of logistics (eg labels, posters, venues, tavel), but I am not sure there was much listening about issues or giving them local exemplifications. Without new content, hope gets ever more thinly spread - till eager young people in colourful hats cause older, tired folk to wonder what this really means.

The challenge now is to think how the internet can orchestrate dispersed aspirations into a song that triumphally engenders further participation. I think what is needed is a re-engineering of bug-tracking software (rather than just blogs) for "fixing the nation" -- where people meet not only to show support and advocate, but also take charge of local issues within their collecitve efforts to fix - given they are energized by their shift from cyber-space and / or being couched in front of TVs).

The "Ask not what the country can do for you, but what you can do for the country" (ie report social bugs and roster people / agencies to fix them) takes on new meaning in Internet-mediated efforts. This way, not only do donations flow easily but exemplifications of Do-It-Ourselves renovation happens.

I wonder if ANYbody has changed their views much, given there is such an emphasis on changing people's minds. Meaning.. OTHER people's minds.. anybody EXCEPT oneself, of course.

As Seth Finkelstein and others have said time and again, "Producing" FAKE "hope involves harvesting the hidden" DOLLARS "of those who feel unheard. This requires" a the gift of a silver tongue, and folks that think they know what's going on, and the Blog-side of the Internet.

Perfect Dean storm, lead by the Deaniac storm troopers of what's PC and what's not, who continue to lead in basically the same exact direction they always have been leading...)-;

You folks "win", because I give up hope that you will ACTUALLY learn how to listen with discrimination. It's harder than just writing the words, lemme tell ya.