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Published On: Dec 09, 2003 10:42 AM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Dec 09, 2003 10:42 AM
Brainstorm
I've got an idea, and it may not work, but there's the
most remote possibility that it might actually be a
really
great idea that could make a significant
political impact. I'm writing it here really as a way to get it out of my head
so I can examine it further.
I've got an idea, and it may not work, but there's the
most remote possibility that it might actually be a
really
great idea that could make a significant
political impact. I'm writing it here really as a way to get it out of my head
so I can examine it further. First, some
background.
I. I've been reading Hillary Rodham Clinton's autobiography Living History. I'm struck by the parallels between 1992 and today, especially with the economy and with Health Care. My conclusion so far is this: no matter how well-meaning a President is, congress has the power to neuter him. Thus, although Howard Dean has done wonderful things in Vermont, the simple fact is that state legislatures are not nearly as polarized as the federal government. Conclusion: It's not enough to change the Presidency, we (meaning Democrats) must retake Congress.
II. The Republican Party has one thing going for them: they are organized. The article I mentioned a few days ago on the redistricting shows that they have the meticulous organizational power to obtain a stranglehold on Congress. They work as an entire unified body while Democrats seem to have a much harder job organizing. Conclusion: The Democratic Party must find a way to organize and achieve the larger goal of systematically winning local congressional races.
III. The paradigm-breaking phenomenon that typifies the Dean Campaign is the use of the Internet as a tool to bring together and organize vast numbers of smaller organizations. Our successes suggest this is a valid model, and I suspect that we are about to demonstrate even bigger successes once the primaries start happening. Conclusion: This technology paradigm might be what we need to achieve the takeover of Congress.
IV. The "Dean Phenomenon" (in this I mean the people) have already shown the ability to rally behind a smaller campaign. In the last meetup I attended there was mention of a "really cool guy" named Mike Miles who was considering (or maybe he already declared) running for an opening senatorial seat here in Colorado. There were many people (myself included) who showed instant interest in seeing what could be done to help his campaign as well. There was also an article I read today about how the Dean campaign put up a link to support some other congressional candidate and the Dean supporters wired up $50,000 over the weekend toward his campaign. Conclusion 1: If we can avoid (historical) infighting between factions of the Democratic Party once Dean is declared the front-runner and the Dean Team folds in with the rest of the Democrats, maybe we can use Dean Team Style Approaches to run and win a lot of congressional battles. Conclusion 2: We need a global Internet tool that can help us organize.
Why do we need such a tool? I'm glad you asked!
My biggest managerial success was against a project so huge and with so many targets and interdependencies that it just seemed too daunting. We had a very small team, and we had to do the impossible. I got to work every day before 6am and focused my first two hours to refreshing our "Project at a Glance". I used a combination of a hand-built groupware (Exchange) application for my remote teams and an enormous wall-sized white board to show a color-coded view of what we had accomplished and what we had yet to do. Every day I refilled the wall with a perspective of our target, and I swear we pulled off the impossible over the span of a year.
This tool served two purposes. First, it allowed us to always keep our eye on the goal so there was never a moment where we didn't know what needed to be done next. Second, it allowed us to keep our focus over an extended period of time. (Third, I didn't have to micro-manage. It was pretty obvious what each person needed to do next.)
So what groupware tool would help achieve this goal? What information do we have to see?
At a glance, we would need:
1a. The ability to keep a running tally of The Big Picture. How many contested seats are available? How do we stand (in the polls) on each seat?
1b. The ability to see this over the next 2, 4, 6... years. We must get as many victories in November 2004 as we can, but then we must somehow preserve our intention and energy to refocus on 2006 and 20008. We need to see seats that will become available (or vulnerable) throughout the next several years.
2. To track all the potential candidates out there that we might be able to support.
3a. A database of both our people (Democrats) and their people (Republicans), both incumbents and new challengers. For each person we should have easy access to...
3b. their political platform, with cross-referenced information on
3c. their voting record or past accomplishments, and finally
3d. Links to every article written about them.
That tool would allow every local Democratic group to organize and, when necessary, pull resources from the larger body to win local elections.
What's in the way? Well, such a database would have to be HUGE and the human resources necessary would require an army of dedicated to complete. But guess what? We (Dean people, Internet people, Open Source people) are legendary for our ability to mobilize unfathomably large armies of people.
What's the tool? Wiki.
For those of you who are not in the know, wiki is part technological marvel and part social phenomenon. It is this giant hyperlinked document system that has decentralized means for armies of people to contribute, edit, correct and refine a large document. The best example (in my mind) is the Wikipedia which is one large multi-language encyclopedia that has been fashioned entirely from decentralized volunteer efforts. The thing is amazing. Just go take a look at it and look up any topic. This is no screwy little kid's game. This is professional quality encyclopedia with over 180,000 different topics.
With a nominal amount of time, effort and equipment, we could create a wiki-research tool that would give a strategic assault, complete with research materials to the grassroots level, and with it we could level the political playing field.
Okay, I sound like a silly dreamer. But you can't deny that both the wikipedia and the Dean campaign are spectacular social phenomena that you wouldn't believe it if you didn't see it.
So that's my idea. I wonder if it's worth pursuing.
I. I've been reading Hillary Rodham Clinton's autobiography Living History. I'm struck by the parallels between 1992 and today, especially with the economy and with Health Care. My conclusion so far is this: no matter how well-meaning a President is, congress has the power to neuter him. Thus, although Howard Dean has done wonderful things in Vermont, the simple fact is that state legislatures are not nearly as polarized as the federal government. Conclusion: It's not enough to change the Presidency, we (meaning Democrats) must retake Congress.
II. The Republican Party has one thing going for them: they are organized. The article I mentioned a few days ago on the redistricting shows that they have the meticulous organizational power to obtain a stranglehold on Congress. They work as an entire unified body while Democrats seem to have a much harder job organizing. Conclusion: The Democratic Party must find a way to organize and achieve the larger goal of systematically winning local congressional races.
III. The paradigm-breaking phenomenon that typifies the Dean Campaign is the use of the Internet as a tool to bring together and organize vast numbers of smaller organizations. Our successes suggest this is a valid model, and I suspect that we are about to demonstrate even bigger successes once the primaries start happening. Conclusion: This technology paradigm might be what we need to achieve the takeover of Congress.
IV. The "Dean Phenomenon" (in this I mean the people) have already shown the ability to rally behind a smaller campaign. In the last meetup I attended there was mention of a "really cool guy" named Mike Miles who was considering (or maybe he already declared) running for an opening senatorial seat here in Colorado. There were many people (myself included) who showed instant interest in seeing what could be done to help his campaign as well. There was also an article I read today about how the Dean campaign put up a link to support some other congressional candidate and the Dean supporters wired up $50,000 over the weekend toward his campaign. Conclusion 1: If we can avoid (historical) infighting between factions of the Democratic Party once Dean is declared the front-runner and the Dean Team folds in with the rest of the Democrats, maybe we can use Dean Team Style Approaches to run and win a lot of congressional battles. Conclusion 2: We need a global Internet tool that can help us organize.
Why do we need such a tool? I'm glad you asked!
My biggest managerial success was against a project so huge and with so many targets and interdependencies that it just seemed too daunting. We had a very small team, and we had to do the impossible. I got to work every day before 6am and focused my first two hours to refreshing our "Project at a Glance". I used a combination of a hand-built groupware (Exchange) application for my remote teams and an enormous wall-sized white board to show a color-coded view of what we had accomplished and what we had yet to do. Every day I refilled the wall with a perspective of our target, and I swear we pulled off the impossible over the span of a year.
This tool served two purposes. First, it allowed us to always keep our eye on the goal so there was never a moment where we didn't know what needed to be done next. Second, it allowed us to keep our focus over an extended period of time. (Third, I didn't have to micro-manage. It was pretty obvious what each person needed to do next.)
So what groupware tool would help achieve this goal? What information do we have to see?
At a glance, we would need:
1a. The ability to keep a running tally of The Big Picture. How many contested seats are available? How do we stand (in the polls) on each seat?
1b. The ability to see this over the next 2, 4, 6... years. We must get as many victories in November 2004 as we can, but then we must somehow preserve our intention and energy to refocus on 2006 and 20008. We need to see seats that will become available (or vulnerable) throughout the next several years.
2. To track all the potential candidates out there that we might be able to support.
3a. A database of both our people (Democrats) and their people (Republicans), both incumbents and new challengers. For each person we should have easy access to...
3b. their political platform, with cross-referenced information on
3c. their voting record or past accomplishments, and finally
3d. Links to every article written about them.
That tool would allow every local Democratic group to organize and, when necessary, pull resources from the larger body to win local elections.
What's in the way? Well, such a database would have to be HUGE and the human resources necessary would require an army of dedicated to complete. But guess what? We (Dean people, Internet people, Open Source people) are legendary for our ability to mobilize unfathomably large armies of people.
What's the tool? Wiki.
For those of you who are not in the know, wiki is part technological marvel and part social phenomenon. It is this giant hyperlinked document system that has decentralized means for armies of people to contribute, edit, correct and refine a large document. The best example (in my mind) is the Wikipedia which is one large multi-language encyclopedia that has been fashioned entirely from decentralized volunteer efforts. The thing is amazing. Just go take a look at it and look up any topic. This is no screwy little kid's game. This is professional quality encyclopedia with over 180,000 different topics.
With a nominal amount of time, effort and equipment, we could create a wiki-research tool that would give a strategic assault, complete with research materials to the grassroots level, and with it we could level the political playing field.
Okay, I sound like a silly dreamer. But you can't deny that both the wikipedia and the Dean campaign are spectacular social phenomena that you wouldn't believe it if you didn't see it.
So that's my idea. I wonder if it's worth pursuing.
Posted: Mon - December 8, 2003 at 04:23 PM