Tonight I’m going to MoveOn.org’s awards for the winning ad in their Bush in 30 Seconds contest, which sought the ad that “best tells the truth about President Bush’s failed policies.” The web site for the contest also has a simple, effective list of concerns about the president and the administration.
In another sign that e-advocacy has arrived on the map, coverage of this contest is highlighting the way MoveOn is “ceding control over much of the content to motivated online participants, producing interactivity that adds grass-roots credibility.”
Technology has given rise what Steven Johnson recently called a “curatorial culture”, in which thousands of individual selections yield results that are stronger for the hive-like collaboration that created them.
Sites like Slashdot, epinions and Kuro5hin showed what’s possible when all participants became co-curators of information. But since the Dean campaign revitalized interest in the Internet, the idea of peer-to-peer politics has gained wider attention than peer-to-peer product ratings ever did.