James F. "Jim" Moore

Consider the advantages of Smart Posses!

An observation on the amazing ever expanding cyber Dean campaign:

The campaign could use a more targeted form of smart mobs, perhaps smart “sub-mobs” that can swarm around more selective opportunities.  These smaller mobs, mini-mobs, might be made up of people who are more intensely complementary.  And that, in turn, up the creativity and the fun..and help the grass grow roots.

To do this the campaign needs a technology service that sits somewhere between Match.com (for smart dates) and Meetup.com (for smart mobs).  I think “smart Posses” might do it.

So—imagine that I fill out a profile and say, “I’d be interested in getting together with people within ten miles of my zip codes, 02138 and 01773, for fun and political activity.”  “I’m interested in [pick one or more] zany street theater, civil disobedience, and tedious letter writing campaigns.  I’d be willing to go to a bar and see if we could sign up cool people for Dean—if you’d go do it with me.”

Then the software would allow any registered member to propose a “Posse” of between five and nine people (Cognitive scientist George Miller’s “magic number seven plus or minus two).  So I’d get an email “From smartposse.com” that would be from some person who had scanned the profiles and thought I’d be fun to have in her or his posse. 

The Posse invitation would include links to the profiles of a bunch of other prospective Posse members that he or she had selected.  I could go check these folks out, and decide if I felt the posse had promise.

A Posse date must have more than five members. This keeps it light, makes it more creatively chaotic, and distinguishes it from a date date.  We email back and forth, and eventually either opt in for this Posse date or opt out for now.  No pressure, just opportunity.

Oh yea, I have no problem with “cool dates for Dean” but that is a different idea…

Another wonderful post from Britt Blaser on The Sound of Democracy and the Dean Campaign’s record setting 6/30/03 fundraising–this one “how to” in a way I think has pretty profound implications for all of us. The point, I think, is that certain forms of online interaction build a personal sense of power and connection, and allow a smart mob to build, and to become a “fun mob” — sort of a digital rave — that calls to others, and that touches all who dance together..

Here’s an excerpt from Britt Blaser’s writeup:

Wisely, the campaign posted the comments of the donors as they described the incredible power of making a difference. This campaign seems trained in Clues. They’ve set up the playing field so that people can talk about governance–money’s just the punch line. As the day rolled on, you could see that the campaign people were not driving the contribution process, they were hosting it. Every half hour, they posted updates that functioned as a scoreboard–symbolic, not financial.

It was performance art. At 1 am, the Burlington crew was wrapping up but their fans, the donors, were urging them to play a few more, at least until the donations came in from California:

12:30 AM Ok, we’ve seen the comments asking us to stay up until 3 AM (“can you guys in HQ please, please keep the posts going until 3 a.m. ET? I’m staying up with you, if that makes you feel any better. ” but we’ve still got a thank you email to send out — so much to thank for — it’s just me, Nicco, and Joe left here, and there are still bags of letters to open. I really wish we could, but believe me, we’re doing everything we can! After 1 AM we’re going to have to check out for the night on the updates. We’ll get you a full report as quickly as we can in the morning.

That‘s the sound of democracy.