The cyberbrains behind Howard Dean |CNET.com
This interview describes some of the goals and tactics in using the Internet for the Dean campaign.
Some of the commenters in a previous post made the assumption that the campaign is all about weblogs. I think this interview shows a side of the campaign that's much more about using the Internet to get people out of their homes and interacting with one another face-to-face via resources like MeetUp.com.
Is using the Internet for organizing and fundraising really new? Campaigns like John McCain's have successfully raised money and organized online. As far back as 1992, campaigns were using FTP sites. What makes Dean different?
This is sort of a radical change. What we are doing is using the Internet to encourage people to organize offline--the great power is allowing people ways to find each other and have meetings offline. The energy that comes out from these offline meetings will be driving our campaign, so every month there are about 4,000 meetings organized online through both Meetup.com and "Get Local," our online event creation service. The Internet allows these people to find each other, but ultimately the campaign is happening offline. That is the big difference. We are taking up the next step and encouraging people to use the online (world) as well as organizing offline and that is why this is so extraordinary.
Via: Anil's Daily Links