Cybercitizens

There are three really influential net pioneers in town today.

All of them are here in one way or another for the Multimedia Conference

which occurs simultaneously with the Film Fest.

Two of them, Kos and My DD,

are going to be on at Fourth and Colorado around 5:30 today.

The other, Craig of Craig's list,

is today's keynote at the Conference.

Kos and My DD are promoting their new book which was reviewed
by the NYT today.

Bloggers at the Gates:
What Was Good for EBay Should Be Good for Politics

By ADAM COHEN
NYTimes
March 12, 2006

"After the disastrous 2004 election, prominent Democrats gathered in Monterey, Calif., to discuss what to do next. The organizers scheduled a session on coalition building, but each special interest complained that its issue was being slighted. In the end, the coalition-building session broke up into five separate groups, each focusing on its own issue.

This comically depressing glimpse of today's Democratic Party is recounted in "Crashing the Gate," a smart new book by two leading bloggers.

Democrats have complained about their national leadership at least since Will Rogers wisecracked, "I am not a member of any organized political party — I am a Democrat." But in their book, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, founder of the liberal blog dailykos.com, and Jerome Armstrong, founder of myDD.com, give these complaints a 21st-century spin.

The authors argue for the importance of the "netroots," or Internet grass roots, which have been a growing political force since Moveon.org, which now has more than three million members, formed in 1998. The netroots came of age in 2004, providing much of the money and energy behind Howard Dean's campaign.

(snip)

Much of the authors' criticism of the party establishment is dead-on. They rail against political consultants who take 15 percent commissions on media buys while giving bad advice.

(snip)

For all the talk about having to crash gates, the netroots are well on their way to becoming insiders. Mr. Armstrong is an adviser to the political action committee of Mark Warner, a leading candidate for president in 2008.

When dailykos holds an offline convention this June in Las Vegas, Harry Reid, the Senate minority leader, will be a speaker.

The Democratic establishment could not hold the netroots back even if it wanted to. Their ability to raise money, recruit volunteers and shape the debate will make them indispensable.

What "Crashing the Gates" is short on is policy: ideas for providing health care, improving education, and all the other things that make it important which party wins.

As the gates swing open, that should be the next item on the agenda."

On the other side of things is Craig Newmark

"Craig Newmark founded Craigslist in 1995, as a way to tell friends about cool events in and around San Francisco. The site -- which easily connects people who have something with people who want something -- has experienced massive growth over the last ten years.

It now serves more than 170 cities in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, Asia, Africa and New Zealand. Despite the power of this global community, Newmark's overall approach has changed very little.

As he told Wired magazine in a September 2004 interview, "I'm pretty happy with nerd values: Get yourself a comfortable living, then do a little something to change the world." Named the "2005 Webby Person of the Year", Newmark retains a simple motto for his site: "Give people a break."

I read "Kos" everyday. I read "My DD" maybe once a week.

And I just placed an ad on Craig's list for an apartment.

These guys are crashing all kinds of barriers.

But mostly, they are in the forefront of the learning,

As we learn to create new communities,

New inventions of social contract.

As we learn to create cybercommunity,

cyberstates, and cybernations.

As we learn to become cybercitizens.

As we learn to let the past

go.


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