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Throughout the Netroots Nation conference, I’m going to attempt to give folks a bit of a taste of the panels I’m attending. It’s not going to be a full-fledged liveblog. Instead, I’m planning on introducing the panel and throwing out a few of the most thought-provoking questions and statements form the panelists for you to discuss.
Let me know what you think and if you like the format (also check in with our diarist RevDeb, who’s live-blogging Netroots).
The Panel:
Leveraging Strength: Effective Collaboration Between Online and Offline Organizations and Activists
This session is dedicated to exploring some of the recent collaborations between traditionally online and traditionally offline organizations in pursuit of progressive public policy goals. This session will showcase some examples of collaboration from genesis to victory and offer a set of "lessons learned" for session participants, sparking conversations about the development of new partnerships and the deeper implications for progressive change.
Panelists: Nathan Henderson-James (ACORN), James Rucker (Color of Change), Robert Greenwald (Brave New Films), Laura Clawson (Daily Kos/AFL-CIO)
The Discussion:
Nathan – "Strengths of online space include the fact that there are no gatekeepers, so people can tell their stories. The weaknesses include the fact that not all of America is online, and it’s harder to be local than national."
Robert – "We measure success by how many people take action. It’s not enough just to watch the videos, people have to do more than that. We’re still at the very beginning of using film as an organizing tool. Free DVDs, making movies in sections. How can we use this tool more effectively, knowing, for example, that one angry white guy yelling at Specter trumped the President?"
James – "We created an embarrassment for state officials in Louisiana with the Jena 6 campaign online with petitions, but what really put the pressure on was bringing tens of thousands to Jena, a town with a small population. Online efforts helped us coordinate messages, and we used online tools to amplify what was happening on the ground. But sustaining a conversation online can be hard."
Laura – "60% of Working America’s members identify as moderate or conservative, but they sign petitions for health care and the Employee Free Choice Act, and they vote for our endorsed candidates in the same percentages as union members. Most Working America members are not sitting at computers at work unsupervised, so they don’t read blogs like most blog readers, who read during the workday. They don’t necessarily have broadband at home. So how do you reach out to these people?"
A question for discussion:
How can organizations (groups like unions, issue advocacy campaigns, etc…) best work in the online world? What things have organizations done online that you felt were useful or effective? What about bringing in constituencies that aren’t online yet? Feel free to add links in the comments.
3 Comments
I’d like to see more connections made between national issues and local events and candidates. For example, if there is an article on the health care debate, can it connect me to a calendar of pro-reform rallies or to progressive local politicians who support single payer? Even as someone who is a regular contributor to a national blog, I have no clue about what’s happening on my local scene.
Yeah, this is a good point, and something that so far has been pretty hard technically to do.
There seems an inherent mismatch in all this. Not so much between the online and offline groups although those might exist as well but between whatever kinds of activism and the conservative corporatist politicians of both parties they have to funnel their efforts through.