Excellent post, Laura.

It made me think. It made me think of something that happened about a month ago, here in Pelham.

A water main broke one morning, early. About 5 AM. I heard fire engines run by my house, I heard cop car sirens. I figured it was a fire nearby, looked out the window, saw no smoke, and then figured it was a false alarm.

I went to take my morning shower, and there was no water. Although it was early in the morning, I was quick on the uptake, and figured out that a water main had busted.

I went to work, unshowered and therefore feeling grungy and ornery, and I tried to get updates throughout the day about the water situation in my little town of Pelham.

I found a local online news page that I never knew existed. It kept me updated all day about the ongoing progress on the water main break. It also provided me with links to groups of people in Pelham who care about this project or that project or this politician or another.

People comment on these things. Mostly kids, but still. It's a start.

I could start an Obama gathering in my little town of Pelham, utilizing this online news page. I could start a political awareness group. I could start a movement.

Who woulda thunk it?

Your assessment seems to be backed up by this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-rosen/they-were-undercover-camp_b_97529.html

God I hope this is true!

But for over 100 years, the Borg has assimilated all. The peace sign stood for nuclear disarmament-- now you can buy it at Walmart. Yellow journalism threatened to destroy the Robber Barons-- but the papers were bought, merged, dissolved. The problem moves at light speed in the arts, the place where the problem is best understood. I think the clearest example is Punk-- radical leftism is now used to sell skateboards. You could make a strong case that Britpop gave us Tony Blair and the Iraq War. I fear the same will be true of Obama... and Linux will be a footnote to a new war, instead of a populist revolution.

Viva la Blogs!

As a fundraising vehicle, the internet has replaced direct-mail, sans paper.

Trippi tapped it first, but Obama's people have brought it to fruition.

And I think it has only just begun.

Great post - you're beautifully articulating many of the Obamaphenomena that have been lifting me out of the abyss of anger and cynicism of the last 8 years.

Absolutely! Thanks for the thread on this topic, Laura.

It's worked incredibly well for him (and for us) in the primary - I'm excited to see if it works as well (or even better) in the GE.

I'm also excited as I see the channels of communication between the campaign and the supporters flowing freely through the net.

Wow! Communicating with your public. What a concept.

You have me thinking. It seems that, no matter what, the internet and future campaigning and governing are inextricably intertwined, and of course the potential for a more informed and participatory democracy is a good thing.

Here's something, however, that should not be discounted, and that is that the internet also breeds something akin to what some have callled "armchair unionism". Armchair unionism is the the product of increased use of the mail ballot in union elections. On the one hand, it makes it easier for folks to vote. On the other hand, it eliminates the need to have people get off their butts and physically come to the union meeting to vote.

By analogy, I think we need to be careful about ignoring the implications of the individualized and possibly isolating effects of the internet. It is indeed liberating and we need to harness the potential of the internet and Senator Obama deserves applause for what he has enabled in this respect, but we still need to be careful about discounting the value of actual physical human contact. As with most innovations, we must take care that we do not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Once again, excellent work. Thanks.

Thanks Laura. I see great potential as well, and as a former federal employee in two cabinet agencies in Washington, I see the bureaucracy as the biggest hurdle. Part of it might be the intransigence and lack of transparency of this Administration and its information and IT policies--which have led to a centralized, highly controlled infrastructure. Bush/Cheney as Executives have made it very difficult to communicate with real people in real time--that has been intentional. And federal employees now operate in an atmosphere of intimidation and censorship. So Obama's huge task will be putting together a Cabinet that then tells its departments and agencies that we are talking a new game, where government should be accessible and available. Web-based services and communication are a natural way to do that. Like dogs that have been beaten, many feds will have to learn to trust their new master. It will take some time, but hiring young people will make it happen faster. Public service is a great first career.

Excellent post, Laura. It's great to see you up on the Recommended list!

It's not that Obama's campaign use of the Internet "may" change politics, it will change politics. It already has. This election will be looked upon as a watershed moment, like that of JFK understanding the power of the television.

>>Obama has used the internet with great success to finance and organize volunteers for his campaign.

Agree completely but isn't the 2008 Obama campaign just picking up with internet fundraising where the 2004 Howard Dean campaign left off? Shouldn't we give a tip of the hat for the getting ball rolling to Joe Trippi? I think yes. Obama represents change plus his magnetism allow him to connect at the grass roots level; however, without the means in place to cheaply do grassroots fundraising on such a vast scale, I think Obama still plods along. The revolution is that Bush's $100k pioneers pale in comparison to the financial muscle of the vast popular hoard supporting Obama.

Vast horde of supporters--now that's a turn of phrase, jjray (had to look up the spelling myself).

It just occurred to me that it's not just the under-35's that are hip to this (dated? youbetcha). Ten years ago truly wouldn't have been surprised to find out that the Internet was indeed a series of tubes. In 2004 I discovered electoral-vote.com in a frantic search for elector information but was scared of blogs. Nowadays, look, ma, no hands!

If this actually happens, if we get outrageous numbers of voters showing up in November who've rarely or never voted, I'm going to plotz, that's what I'm going to do. And then what? We've got a whole lotta work to do.