Heh, this gets more and more interesting. Course, there are lots of "consultants" trying to sell campaigns on their ability to duplicate Dean's success. I'll give those campaigns one hint -- don't buy the tool if you don't understand the philosophy. Doc is really getting busy on this topic as reports more politician blog activity in the same day.
Explaining a few things.
About the Howard Dean Campaign, David Weinberger says,
...no campaign has ever gotten the Internet so right. They aren't just working the email lists and using the Net as a way to drive down the cost of mass politicking. From Joe Trippi on down they "get" the Net. They understand that it's about giving voice to the "ends" of the Net (AKA us), that it means they lose some control of their message, that they need to enable groups to self-organize, that it's about listening and conversations more than about center-out broadcasting. This is an end-to-end campaign. The staff is webby to the core. If you met 'em, you'd love 'em.
I have met 'em — or some of them, anyway. And I love the ones I've met, including Dr. Weinberger himself, who "came out" in the same blog posting as the Senior Internet Advisor for the Dean Campaign. Modestly, the good doctor declines to give any credit to his very smart self for the campaign's Xtreme Net-savvyness.
It will be interesting to see what happens when other savvy and lovable people get on board other campaigns. Because what we need now are more truly networked campaigns, not just one (Dean's) and a bunch of copycats.
In the long run there should be no such thing as an "Internet candidate." Being engaged through the Net should be an obvious prerequisite for every candidate who wants to stand a chance of winning.
[The Doc Searls Weblog]
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9:12:40 AM 
