Presidential Campaigning at the Edge.
Henri Poole has blogged a nice analysis of how Dean's campaign uses smartmob technologies to leverage Reed's Law.
If you read Dan Gillmore's December 8th ejournal entry, he talks about Dean as “the candidate who – thanks to prescient aides who saw the power coming from the edges of the networks – melded the Net with a more traditional campaign.”
If you don't know the lingo, you miss the point. Whether by accident or design, Dean is energizing the edge by providing tools that enable group forming networks. Here is an example:
Dean Volunteer Activitity from National Site
Process to get involved:
1) go to webpage
2) click on get local
3) type in Zip Code, returns no results
4) click increase radius of search, returns 8 events
5) find tea party event and two others 36 miles from home in 2 days, send email to hosts, wait for response
6) Notice list of attendees names and click on one
7) Notice search for people by zip code, put in zip code with 5 mile radius
8) See list of 18 Supporters in my small town
9) Click to email all of them, and send them a note to drive together
Summary: The Dean process drives one to the edges, creating a decentralized network topology. [Smart Mobs]