I predict that the upcoming national election activity will put blogging on the map as a broad populist activity.
The Associated Press just ran an article titled Democrat Convention Credentials Bloggers. The Dems seem to be embracing blogging while the GOP is still trying to figure it out (per a statement from GOP spokesman Leonard Alcivar).
A year ago, I helped fund the startup of an organization in Colorado called the Rocky Mountain Progressive Network. RMPN’s mission “is to provide an independent, credible voice to counter the policies of the far right, hold our elected leadership accountable, and promote concrete solutions to improve the quality of life for the Rocky Mountain region.”. From the beginning, the organization has extensively used blogging as one of its central communication mechanisms. RMPN has found their use of blogging to be incredibly effective.
In the last major cycle, email played a big part. In the primaries, everyone was startled by the huge early fundraising success that Dean had using the Internet. I think blogging is going to be the central technology theme in this cycle.
Thank god Al Gore invented this Internet thing.