Mopsos

"The Marketing of a President" is a great article showing how weblogs and other forms of social computing. are transforming the Internet "from information technology to organizing technology".

I was particularly struck by the following quote from the article:

"Dean's grassroots supporters have come to take care of some problems for the campaign. Blog for America readers, for instance, police themselves in terms of the tone and content of comments. When "trolls" - blog jargon for hostile commenters looking to make trouble -- come in with negative or provocative remarks, pro-Dean commenters react by pledging donations for each negative comment, which creates a disincentive for the trolls. After this idea was posted on the blog, the number of trolls diminished to almost zero."

An intriguing example of self-regulation and collective intelligence, which almost turns the community of Dean supporters into a form of online citizenship.

The conclusion of the article is also worth meditating:

"The pundits still don't get it. They see your incredible fundraising numbers - and that's all they understand. But our campaign was not built just by money - it was built by the full participation of you and thousands of others who believe that each of us has the power and the duty to participate in our democracy."

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