Twee cheers for Ethan Zuckerman, for articulating my same reservations about Sunlight’s “twobbying” campaign more clearly than I did.
Just because we have the means to open a firehose with twitter or email, doesn’t mean that will unlock the true or most enduring power of these tools.
Yes, they got Boxer and Claire McCaskill (see 3/11 9:00 pm) to tweet their support for S. 482. But we need to remember that tools don’t shape our opportunities, context does. MoveOn used the forward button to turn the Internet into a political engine, but online organizing has moved on. Let’s learn faster.
Ethan says: “Maybe the lesson here is that the easiest, most straightforward ways to use these tools will inevitably descend into spam. Or that we should look for less obvious, more participatory ways to use the tools.”
Also … McCaskill’s tweets are really fun (get with it, Boxer!). And a belated nod to Allison Fine – I’ve avoided the shorthand “social media,” which I first heard from her, but it’s the best term out there for now, so if I can’t tweet ’em …

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