Excellent points. Totally agreed on the missing pieces today. One thing I’d say though is that despite existing social networks limitations, they can be effective ways of sending a message to legislators (a Get FISA Right act.ly petition got a Senat…

Re meeting others: I got a business card from the “Department of Peace” supporter sitting next to me, which is buried in my satchel somewhere now. But I arrived with minutes to go before the press conference part started (stupid Metro), and had to leave early (stupid work :)). Everybody else’s job appeared to be “be at a press conference from 9am-11am.” So I didn’t get to do much networking/meeting people.

I suppose I’m coming around to a more social-networky outlook as I’m exposed to what can be done with it. Plus in some ways it’s not that new: I think there’s an element to it, at the basic level, that’s kind of like yard signs: “this is what I think” facebook displays, that often bring in friends and acquaintances: “Huh. Why does he think that? I’ll check it out.” I know that around here, he/she who wins the yard sign race often wins the election. There’s a chicken/egg aspect to that, but yard signs definitely make it easier to imagine supporting the candidate. Online “yard signs” have the added benefit that these yard signs are clickable, and can lead straight to organizations and/or knowledge about/of issues.

Missed the concert, Nell, but you make me think I shouldn’t have. Yes, the “niche” stuff bothered me a bit. It could seem like he didn’t “get” his own brainchild. The groups that rise to the top of this kind of thing may well have geographically and/or demographically diffuse, diverse support bases — but that makes it all the more remarkable that they can attract the level of support they do. It’s not “niche” so much as “not being listened to, yet, but quite sure they’re right, and quite sure there are more like them” that seems to sum up the group’s memberships to me. Assuming they are right and keep growing, “niche” is one of the last available ways to ignore them before they sweep over, around, and past you.

Note to both: comments are displayed in the order received, but comments are also held for moderation for new commenters. Sorry about the delay, Jon.

‘Niche’ ideas: like prosecution for torture, eh? Hm.

Well, I’m still in a mellow state after crying my eyes out in several spots during the ‘We Are One’ concert. Broke down completely when Pete Seeger led the crowd in the ‘niche’ verses to ‘This Land is Your Land’ right after Obama’s speech… ;>

Free on HBO at 7:00 if you have digital cable.

I wasn’t tracking precisely, but … Bob and Democrats.com help was huge and on Tuesday (as our voting was going on) and the last few hours Thursday our numbers largely paralleled his: the final surge that carried him to #11 also carried us to #5. And on Wednesday (or maybe early Thursday morning, can’t remember) I remember noticing our numbers were rising in parallel with DREAM Activists, which probably reflected us reaching a largely-new audience. LGBTQ and peace activists impact was harder to single out so I’m not sure … and once again these are largely-new audiences.

In the end we made it into the top 5 by only 5 votes, so it was the combined contribution of each of these allies put us over the top.

Thanks!