the Revolution of the Ants

interesting.

Blogs Counter Political Plottings

Social networking, online community activism and blogs have started a "revolution of the ants," and it's spreading beyond the Net.

That was the assessment of panelists last week at the University of California at Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, who spoke about the political activism of online communities. The Web has been particularly effective in engaging politically apathetic people and motivating them to take politics back to the grass-roots level.

"We'll look back and see (the Howard Dean presidential campaign) as the beginning of the change," said Mark Pincus, chief executive and founder of Tribe Networks, which runs the Tribe.net social network.

The Dean campaign successfully attracted millions of grass-roots dollars because it worked counter to the traditional ways campaigns work, said Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, publisher of the popular Democratic activists' blog Daily Kos. Typically, consultants and political parties try to suppress voter turnout -- at least those voters who don't intend to vote for their candidate. But now activists are using the Web -- specifically activism networks and blogs -- to fight back and re-engage people, Moulitsas said.

more ...

the choice quote here is: "Typically, consultants and political parties try to suppress voter turnout -- at least those voters who don't intend to vote for their candidate.

florida anyone?