SummaryI've been on the Dean mailing list for months but never read the e-mails (preaching to the choir, I figured) and recently deleted them all from my inbox after Dean's unexpectedly weaker showings in Iowa and New Hampshire and the replacement of Trippi with Beltway insider Roy Neel. But today I got a great e-mail from Dean campaign worker Zephyr Teachout which I want to pass on to you. (It's reproduced in its entirety at the bottom of this post. If you like the idea, email it to a bunch of your friends.)
Basically, Teachout is trying to use the internet to bring about some old-fashioned street theater.
Dean supporters should simply go out on a busy street corner near their house at 4PM Eastern Time this coming Saturday February 7 and hold up a sign saying "I am Howard Dean's Special Interest" in a show of grassroots support for this Democratic candidate.This could be a great way to get the message out person-to-person, without wasting dollars on TV air time and without begging for fair treatment from the Diane Sawyers and Maureen Dowds of the world!
DetailsDean campaign post-mortems - premature?I was ready to write the Dean campaign off as another dotcom-style flame-out and just vote for Kerry or Edwards or Clark or whoever's "electable" - "Anybody But Bush" (ABB).
Some people have said that Dean was more about The Medium than about The Message - but I never really had a problem with that, probably because I like "stupid networks" - network architectures where all the content is created by the subscribers (and not by AOLTimeWarnerRupertMurdochCBS), and I'd probably like "stupid candidates" - politicians whose policies are shaped by participating individuals and not by dollars donated by corporations.
"Rise of the Stupid Network" by David Isenberg
http://www.hyperorg.com/misc/stupidnet.htmlAn interesting e-mail from the Dean campaignToday, after I stayed up all last night reading all kinds of post-Iowa, post-New Hampshire analysis of the Dean campaign's stumbles (the most nuanced I thought were by Clay Shirky and John Perry Barlow), I got my first email from the new Dean campaign manager, former lobbyist Roy Neel, (called
Where we go from here) - which I opened and read, and it was actually a pretty sober, strategic stab at regrouping...
"Where We Go From Here" by Roy Neel
http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/003471.html"Is Social Software Bad for the Dean Campaign?" by Clay Shirky
http://www.corante.com/many/archives/2004/01/26/is_social_software_bad_for_the_dean_campaign.php"The Counter-Revolution has been Televised" by John Perry Barlow
http://barlow.typepad.com/barlowfriendz/2004/01/the_counterrevo.htmlA great new idea from the Dean campaign...and there was another e-mail from the Dean campaign written by Zephyr Teachout, entitled Imagine this story in the papers - which I also decided to open and read, and it seemed insanely great.In this e-mail Teachout proposes a bold, simple, brilliant tactic apparently targeted at tackling some of the very same old-media-versus-new-media crossover problems identified in Shirky's and Barlow's post-mortems on the Dean campaign:
{This Saturday}, on February 7th, ... stand with thousands of other Americans in thousands of neighborhoods to show that the Dean grassroots are here to stay.
It is very simple - just make your own "I AM HOWARD DEAN'S SPECIAL INTEREST" sign ... Walk to the corner of your block at 4 PM ET (1 PM PT, 2 PM MT, 3 PM CT, etc). This "SmartMobs"-type event might start to bring about the much-needed virtual-to-real-world spillover that bloggers such as Shirky and Barlow (and their commenters and trackbackers) have diagnosed as missing from Dean's campaign.
There are many different ways to harness the New Media for political campaigning, and maybe we're learning that internet fund-raising to buy expensive ad time on the Old Media might not even be the best one of them. (Web-design books I used to read always said it was a mistake to look at the internet as some sort of PR "add-on" to the main enterprise - the best way to harness the internet is to see it as central to the main enterprise itself. Websites not as virtual business-cards, but as actual store-fronts and meetup-points.)
How to really harness the internetSo, maybe the Dean campaign hasn't gone far enough in harnessing New Media strengths. The internet is good because:
(1) New Media, with the right topology, can perform the "gatekeeper" function much better than Old Media. (Examples: MoveOn.org's ad vetting and voting process can come up with more-relevant ("truer") messages than Madison Avenue can. Volunteer bloggers can come up with much higher-quality ("truer") content than paid media whores. Volunteer peer-to-peer file-sharing creates better music and video libraries and stimulates better mixing than brick-and-mortar corporate labels and A&R departments.)
(2) New Media, with the right topology, can perform the "aggregator" function much better than Old Media. (Example: Internet-based fund-raising can raise more, smaller donations than $1,000-a-plate dinners. Snapshot on-line primaries such as MoveOn.org's and long-term blog-rolling such as daypop.org or blogrunner.com can (someday) better take the pulse of the people than Zogby polls or a series of caucuses and primaries held during bad weather in small less-populous states.)
Dean has mainly used the New Media as a fund-raising tool, subsequently funneling a lot of that cash back to the Old Media for TV ad purchases. What if he started using the internet as a "smartmobs" tool (as in Zephyr Teachout's e-mail proposal)? What if he were to sponsor a MoveOn.org-style ad contest (and demographically target and distribute the winning ad
s on the internet and ultimately across the "digital divide" into people's VCRs)? Why pay the networks when you can just buy blank VCR tapes? Make a different tape for each state and distribute those tapes, rather than writing hand-written notes to caucus-goers.
New Media might need to "run around" the Old MediaAs MoveOn.org found out when CBS refused to run their very carefully vetted award-winning safe-for-prime-time anti-Bush ad during the Superbowl, it's not even about BUYING expensive ad time from the Old Media - you have to BEG for the privilege of buying it. (To address this problem, how about just burning a bunch of DVDs and VCR tapes showing ALL the MoveOn.org ad finalists, and dropping them around the neighborhood? Heck, if Dean can blow $33 million on ads and organizing in just two states, how about budgeting a few million dollars for blank VCR tapes and DVDs. If CBS is the problem.)
CBS has no problem giving George Bush free air-time with a feel-good puff-piece pre-game Superbowl interview, and CBS has no problem running ads from licit-drug-pushers Partnership for a Drug-Free America making the questionable claim that illicit drugs including marijuana finance "terrorism" - but when a grass-roots organization wants to run an ad reminding us most economists are saying that George Bush's economic policies are mortgaging our children's future, that's considered too controversial.
Feeling threatened with a loss of political and economic clout, the Old Media may have decided to pick a fight with the New Media, like the futile battle the music labels and movie studios are attempting to wage against high-quality, low-cost file-sharing topology, like the aptly-named "fossil" fuel industry (EnronHalliburtonBechtelBrownRootAndKellog) is attempting to wage against renewable energy sources. As it turns out (and as ABC has now officially admitted), the
first remix of the "Dean Scream" was done right during the first recording, when a directional mic was used to hone in on the single track of Dean's shouting to be heard over the roaring crowd.
And remember Dean's "Adopt-an-Iowan" letter-writing campaign, where Dean web volunteers hand-wrote letters to Iowa caucus voters? Maybe the down-home old-timers didn't take to kindly to a bunch of out-of-state whipper-snappers telling them what to do.
Social-software theorist Dave Wineberger's inbox is so overflowing with personal recommendations and recommendation-requests for people joining social-software networks such as Friendster and Orkut that he's been forced to treat such inbox items like spam now: deleting them all unread. I know a lot of my friends are sick and tired of hearing me rant on and on (on the phone, in e-mails) about how we need to take this country back again. But I've also sent lots of my friends hundreds of hours of MP3 music I downloaded and duped onto data CDs - and I'm sure they're happier to get that CD rather than have to listen to me trying to belt out an old disco hit myself over the telephone. Why should my friends have to listen little old me ranting about George Bush when much more talented media masters such as Michael Moore or Will Pitt or Bev Harris or Gregory Palast or SymbolMan at takebackthemedia.com or the MoveOn.org ad contestants can do such a better job than I can?
Hippocratic oath for New Media and social softwareA new, shoulda-been-obvious rule for social-software design and New Media networking is finally starting to make its way around the blogosphere: "First, do no harm..."
...a Hippocratic oath the good Doctor Dean might have violated when he blew his campaign war-chest on repetitive, saturation airing of old-style ads (and media-buy commissions for Trippi) and clever but ultimately perhaps condescending letter-writing campaigns to Iowans - both of which may have done more social harm than good.
...a Hippocratic oath which we all probably violate when we rant to our friends (and to strangers) about what a mess the Bush administration is. Instead of ranting to our friends or co-workers or the person sitting next to us at the coffee-shop or on the airplane, what if we went to the trouble to give them a high-quality videotape of the best audiovisual messages out there which they could choose to view at their own leisure?
There are lots of ways virtual organizing can cross over into real-world results. Pooling lots of small donations to buy ad time on CBS is just one of those ways, and - given CBS's obvious pro-corporate, anti-grassroots partisanship - probably not even the best use of precious funds. I think the new watchword should be
"obviation" - as in "Obviate CBS" - Go around the Old Media. If CBS wants to surround itself with a moat and pull up the drawbridge, show them that they're only isolating
themselves from the majority of the country.
"Smartmob" techniques such as Teachout's good old-fashioned street-corner electioneering proposal, and other old-fashioned virtual-to-real-world crossovers such as the idea of going straight-to-video rather than to CBS - these might be how to
really harness the internet as a tool for political organizing, and "go around" the gatekeepers of the Old Media so that individuals can interact directly with individuals once again.
= = =
Here's the entire text of the e-mail from Dean campaign worker Zephyr Teachout:From: "Zephyr Teachout, Dean for America"
To: ____ <________@___.___>
Cc:
Subject: Imagine this story in the papers
Date: Sun, 01 Feb 2004 03:58:23 -0500
Dear _____,
Imagine this story in your local paper next week:
- - - -
One neighborhood at a time, ordinary Americans stand up for Dean
Block by block, Dean supporters took to the streets yesterday. Ordinary Americans claimed thousands of street corners from Flagstaff to Austin, Green Bay to Miami, sprawling across America one neighborhood at a time, holding signs reading "I am Howard Dean's Special Interest." More than 300,000 Americans have donated $88 on average.
- - - -
Kerry and Edwards and Bush have solicited millions of dollars from large corporate special interests - only Dean has the passion of over half a million people committed to changing America. We have a candidate who doesn't just talk about change, but has a record of delivering real results.
Next week, on February 7th, the date of the Michigan and Washington caucuses, stand with thousands of other Americans in thousands of neighborhoods to show that the Dean grassroots are here to stay.
It is very simple - just make your own "I AM HOWARD DEAN'S SPECIAL INTEREST" sign (or we'll send you one if you sign up below). Walk to the corner of your block at 4 PM ET (1 PM PT, 2 PM MT, 3 PM CT, etc). Pick a corner that has some traffic, but is still close to home. Be creative - if a few people find a thousand different ways to be visible for Dean on thousands of street corners, sprawling across America's small towns and big cities, we can make this happen.
* Plan an event online: http://commons.deanforamerica.com
* Pledge to stand up for Dean (on your own) on February 7th: http://www.deanforamerica.com/visibility
* Download a media advisory to let your local press know that you're involved: http://www.deanforamerica.com/visibilitymedia
* To contribute to give voice to Howard Dean's message, click here: http://www.deanforamerica.com/contribute
It is our job in a democracy to imagine the world we want to live in, and then act to realize that vision.
This election is about power - who owns our government and who runs it?
If hundreds of thousands of Americans all stand on street corners together, standing with you, standing Dean at the same time, sharing Dean's message of democracy, results, and courage, we can wake this country up, show our power, and help Dean break through --
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Zephyr Teachout, Dean for America
PS: Don't miss Governor Dean on television: A full-hour interview on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday morning. To find the time and channel, go to: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3080248/
Diane Sawyer's "mea culpa" in which ABC News and other networks admitted to overplaying and misrepresenting Governor Dean's Iowa speech. Read or watch the story at: http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/news/012904_NW_r2_group_deanscream.html
PPS: Meetup is Wednesday. Make sure you go and bring 10 friends: http://www.deanforamerica.com/meetup
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