Steven Clift
Mon, 22 Oct 2001 08:45:16 -0700
*** Democracies Online Newswire - http://www.e-democracy.org/do ***
Full article from: http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/773948.html Minneapolis StarTribune Monday Oct. 22, 2001 Minneapolis e-mail forum has become a force in city politics Two years ago, R.T. Rybak [a leading candidate for Mayor] felt isolated in some of his opinions about Minneapolis City Hall. He posted to an e-mail forum called Minneapolis-Issues. "It was one of the places where I could air out my ideas and get support or criticism," says Rybak. His experience illustrates the emergence of Minneapolis-Issues in shaping the Minneapolis body politic. A healthy sprinkling of this year's city candidates are list participants. My comments: I was talking the other month with Clay Shirky <http://www.shirky.com> about "natural trends" in online groups. He mentioned a couple of things that he had heard that seemed to ring true with our e-mail list experience in Minnesota. First, somewhere between 500-1000 participants either you must enforce the rules or they will not be followed, second after about two years many of the original participants pull back (often into more private spaces) often because of built up inter-personal "anti-bodies" that build up in the system. Combine these online factors with anti-incumbency feelings that have built up since the last Minneapolis local elections four years ago and you have one heck of a challenging online political discourse environment. Hence, lessons to be learned, experience to be had ... After three years, the Minneapolis Issues Forum has received finally received direct attention in the state's largest newspaper. While E-Democracy's many forums are useful sources for journalists through which our civic discussions often have an agenda-setting impact, it is great to see a confirmation headline in print that what our volunteers (lead by David Brauer in Minneapolis) and participants have built is significantly contributing to our local democracy. As reported in the article, in September (our primary election was September 11) we had over 600 participants, with about 40 messages a day from a total of 224 different participants. I am amazed by the diversity of participation - 1 out of 3 posted that month! For more see <http://www.e-democracy/org/mpls> and my presentation on building a local commons <http://www.publicus.net/present/agora.html>. You should build one in your community! Let me know if you start something up: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Steven Clift Minnesota E-Democracy Democracies Online P.S. Across the river, in our St. Paul forum, volunteer Tim Erickson is leading a special discussion on the School Board elections (see list archives from http://e-democracy.org/stpaul ) and the announcement post directly <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mn-stpaul/message/2694>. ^ ^ ^ ^ Steven L. Clift - W: http://www.publicus.net Minneapolis - - - E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minnesota - - - - - T: +1.612.822.8667 USA - - - - - - - ICQ: 13789183 *** Please send submissions to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** To subscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** Message body: SUB DO-WIRE *** *** To unsubscribe instead, write: UNSUB DO-WIRE *** *** Please forward this post to others and encourage *** *** them to subscribe to the free DO-WIRE service. ***