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OK, so we know that the Internet can be used to organize partisans, whether you are supporters of Howard Dean's Democracy for America <http://dfa.meetup.com> or Vet's Against Kerry <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VetsAgainstKerry/>. (Interestingly, the only election e-group that anyone took the time to invite me to join via the Yahoogroups invite tool and about the only anti-Kerry group where Kerry supporters are mixing it up - and not in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bush2004/>.) So, as I speculated months ago, the Internet is primarily being used as a strategic tool in a virtual civil war <http://www.publicus.net/articles/democraticevolution.html> where "excessive and bitter partisanship of the increased activist population leaks into the e-mail boxes of everyday people" which will lead to the "abhorrence of Net-era politics among the general citizenry." Yikes. So, one little test of a tool, first in Minneapolis, is the use of Meetup.com to encourage people from different political perspectives to meet in person to discuss local issues. It helps that we already have 900 people on an e-mail list <http://www.e-democracy.org/mpls/> dedicated to the same theme. If it works (see note below) we might try to promote http://e-democracy.org/meetup after the U.S. election to do our small part in post-virtual war reconstruction. Steven Clift Chair, E-Democracy.Org Democracies Online Newswire - http://dowire.org ------- Forwarded message follows ------- From: Steven Clift <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], oddc@ , [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Local Issues Meetup Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date sent: Tue, 24 Aug 2004 13:29:46 -0500 A quick update from http://E-Democracy.Org central. We'd love your reaction and comments on: http://www.e-democracy.org/meetup http://localissues.meetup.com Send them to our volunteer team: http://www.e-democracy.org/comments.html We are starting to use Meetup with our Minneapolis Issues Forum members <http://www.e-democracy.org/mpls>. We will test out this tool next week. If it works, we will expand its promotion to St. Paul and our other forums. The great thing about Meetup and defining the space as a neutral "Local Issues" forum, any e-mail list or web forum with a local focus can adopt this Meetup space for their own use. Those most interested in this idea should read up on this idea and join our informal working group e-mail list: http://www.e-democracy.org/meetup/partnership.html While this is not restricted to U.S. by any means, our sense is that by election day the Internet will be viewed by the average citizen as a cess pool of negative politics and satire. We haven't been involved in the positive uses of the Internet in elections, politics, and community for a decade to not fight back with some positive actions that bring democratic potential of the online medium and citizens to life. So, if we get a good vibe about Meetup in our existing local forums AND if some of you with promotional resources want to help, we can promote this Meetup widely after the election to bring our nation together on local issues where partisanship is less of a threat. (Folks can talk about rumors and personalities, the engine of real local politics. :-) Although, we will promote the idea of "issues" over and over again of course.) If you would like to help promote the use of this simple Meetup space for discussion of local issues among people from different political perspectives, consider adding a link to your locally themed site <http://localissues.meetup.com/share/> (any site really) or join our informal working group e-mail list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Steven Clift Board Chair, E-Democracy.Org ------- End of forwarded message ------- ^ ^ ^ ^ Steven L. Clift - - - W: http://publicus.net Minneapolis - - - - E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minnesota - - - - - - T: +1.612.822.8667 USA - - - - - MSN/Y!/AIM: netclift Join my Democracies Online Newswire: http://dowire.org EDem's Election 2004 Links: http://e-democracy.org/us *** Past Messages, to Subscribe: http://dowire.org *** *** To subscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** Message body: SUB DO-WIRE *** *** To UNSUBSCRIBE instead, write: UNSUB DO-WIRE *** *** Please send submissions to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** New RSS XML Feed Available: *** http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/maillist.xml
