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Here is where I confess the true depths of my nerdiness and then we will never speak of it again. Right? Right. I love politics (like really deep nerd love where I watch C-SPAN all day long) (I also once cried in the House gallery because I was in the House gallery). I also love social media because of how it can bring a community together. Both politics and Internet tools have flaws but my love transcends the bad because so much good can be brought from both.
Now, given those factors it has been my dream to see the two meet. There have been some bumps in the road like interns using blogs to write about affairs with the DC elite (coughJESSICACUTLERcough) but the use of social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and blogs has helped a number of candidates on the left and the right get their message out to a much broader number of people. In return the more people who know the more are likely to donate and donations via online forms have sky rocketed since Howard Dean's netroots organizing during the 2004 campaign.
Earlier in the week George Washinton University held their Politics Online Conference which brings politics and the Internet together (If you could see my face right now. it's full of glee). Though it's been held for several years this is the first year that Internet geeks and politicians really got it. Over the last several months the number of congressional members and candidates using Twitter and Facebook to reach the masses is overwhelming and exciting. All the while the current administration has invoked a spirit of accountability and transparency to a public who has often felt like what happens inside of the Beltway is only controlled by those that live within those walls.
Most people like to know what is going on but they want to be talked to like people and like they're equals not talked down to. People crave that transparency from government to feel apart of things and to know what is going on and where their dollars are headed. In the meantime, we Millennials (those in their 20's - early 30's) like for things to be instantaneous. It's also comforting to know that those in power are thinking of us and aren't completely aloof. They're like real live people or something.
While I didn't get to attend the conference, C-SPAN has coverage up on their website. My favorite session was with members of Congress discussing Twitter - Elected and Connected: Uses, Dangers and Benefits of Being an Elected Official in a 2.0 World. Members using Twitter. My cup runneth over. All of the participants - Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Steve Israel, Tim Ryan, and Claire McCaskill -have a Director of New Media position in their office to help converge the political with the online world. Commendable for all but I do have a soft spot for Claire McCaskill's twitter stream which she started in response to comments of her being not very approachable as a new member of congress. She now has a following of over 21,000 individuals who she engages during the day with her whereabouts - committee meetings, on the floor - to which basketball team she'll be rooting for. Members of Congress! They're just like us!
Of course for every Claire McCaskill or web page from the administration showing exactly where recovery funds are going, there are people who still find the Internet to be creepy. There are still organizations who are dragging their feet at moving into a 2.0 World. Though unsurprising, the movement by the above politicians and political campaigns - from political races to ballot measures - shows an improvement on the part of politicians who are more known for doing things behind closed doors and being cold and distant from their constituents. So it is my hope upon hope that conferences like this bring everyone in the political movement this way: Not left or right but forward.
Here are some recaps from the conference: Writes Like She Talks, Don't Gel Too Soon, George Washington's Internet and Politics class
And because I'm nosy curious: How do you all feel about politicos using the Internet? Too much transparency? Enough transparency? Or too little?
