Learning to Use the Tools

Today’s Boston Globe has an interesting article which
explains the origin of MoveOn and its relationship to the Dean campaign.
It also features some speculation on where MoveOn will move onto next…

MoveOn’s Internet techniques were adopted by former governor Howard
Dean of Vermont to power his formidable fund-raising machine. Dean’s
rivals — and even the GOP — are now using them in ways that are revolutionizing
political activism and campaign finance.

The Bush-Cheney reelection campaign now has an e-mail list 6 million
people long, and Web organizers have designated team leaders who are
responsible
for distributing bulletins and appeals for action to other Bush supporters,
giving the operation a more formal structure than MoveOn’s. That campaign "is
going to be the best-organized multimedia — including Internet — get-out-the-vote
operation this country has ever seen," said Cornfield.

from the Boston Globe