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Saturday, December 13, 2003 |
 Given what we know of the costs of the war in Iraq, I love this post made back in February.
11:21:47 PM 
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Chris Lydon's interview with Dick Morris is excellent. Dick is very sharp. He gets that this sea change energizes democracy and at the same time energies opposition to representative bureaucracy. What Dick doesn't get is that the changes we will see are going to factionalize politics. Any group with a dedicated cadre of participants will be difficult to ignore -- they will thrive in this environment. Can two party politics survive this? How many ways can you slice up the American electorate? I also don't agree that we won't see more aggressive opposition (beyond the ballot box) by these groups when they are ignored or lose.
10:00:08 PM
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Given the new laws on campaign finance and Internet-enabled campaigns (and external campaign support like that at Moveon), how long is it going to be before we see activist corporations? Take the pharmaceutical corporations. They have a specific agenda they see as critical to their future success. Why aren't they actively working on their employees to support candidates that agree with their objectives (I haven't seen anything of any substance in this area, have you?)? A paycheck is a huge motivator. It just hasn't traditionally been tied to specific political objectives. That is something that is going to change. Imagine a corporate CPO (chief political officer) that organizes rally's, gathers contributions, runs a weblog on the politics of the corporation (and encourages others to do the same), and more.
8:21:44 PM
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Roland has a great overview of a recent urban analysis and mapping effort. What is interesting is that city growth globally is conforming to the surburbanization patterns we saw in the US. Other analysis shows that the emergence of megacities (those with 10 m) or more people is a new thing. In 1950, only one city had over 10 m people: New York. Now, there are ~ 17, and the vast majority are outside the US and Europe. Nearly 50% of the world's population lives in cities, which represent only 2% of the land mass. In 2030, it will be ~66%.
1:37:01 PM
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Smart Mobs. Modelling insect communities to determine how swarming work occurs.
1:09:14 PM
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LATimes. Does the Supreme Court decision to uphold the ban on soft money make more or less possible that third party candidates will run and win major offices? I think it points towards fragmentation as frustrated groups opt to run candidates of their own.
1:03:16 PM
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WP. I love the theories of Coase (worth a read). Here politico economist Everett Ehrlich applies Coase to the Dean campaign. To an economist, the "trick" of the Internet is that it drives the cost of information down to virtually zero. So according to Coase's theory, smaller information-gathering costs mean smaller organizations. And that's why the Internet has made it easier for small folks, whether small firms or dark-horse candidates such as Howard Dean, to take on the big ones.
For all Dean's talk about wanting to represent the truly "Democratic wing of the Democratic Party," the paradox is that he is a third-party candidate using modern technology to achieve a takeover of the Democratic Party. Other candidates -- Joseph Lieberman , John Kerry, John Edwards -- are competing to take control of the party's fundraising, organizational and media assets. But Dean is not interested in taking control of those depreciating assets. He is creating his own party, his own lists, his own money, his own organization. What he wants is the Democratic brand name and legacy, its last remaining asset of value, as part of his marketing strategy. Perhaps that's why former vice president Al Gore's endorsement of Dean last week felt so strange -- less like the traditional benediction of a fellow member of the party "club" than a senior executive welcoming the successful leveraged buyout specialist. And if Dean can do it this time around, so can others in future campaigns.
This is exactly what I have been struggling with. Given that Dean's online organization seems to be as much about electing Dean to office as it is to work together as a group (an organization of the second superpower), will it survive the election if Dean loses?
12:25:24 PM
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Reuters: I missed this the first time, but it is interesting. South Korea telecommunications minister recently decreed that all camera phones must emit a beep of at least 65 decibels when taking a photo, even when the phone was in silent mode.
12:10:09 PM
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LOL. There are 15 open WiFi networks in my zipcode. Wardrivers found all of them. Mine isn't on there, but that is because I can barely get a signal in my yard let alone the street. Check out whether your network is on the list.
11:16:13 AM
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The New Yorker: On the new unconventional wafare strategy in Iraq: The former Special Forces official warned that the problem with head-hunting is that you have to be sure “you’re hunting the right heads.” Speaking of the now coöperative former Iraqi intelligence officials, he said, “These guys have their own agenda. Will we be doing hits on grudges?
8:21:03 AM
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© Copyright 2004 John Robb.
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