Blogs “Incubating” Public Debate

Today’s most successful political and issue advocacy movements have already come to recognize the growing influence of web-based media. Yet coming to terms with the “twitter generation” is only the first step towards using modern technology successfully.

The gap between those “in the know,” like the Obama campaign, and those “in the trenches” when it comes to net advocacy and blogging was the subject of a recent article on The Caucus, the Politics and Government blog of the NY Times:

“Web traffic may be down since Election Day, but compared to their numbers before the 2008 campaign season hit high-gear, each say it’s still growing at a healthy clip. Blogs are fast-becoming the primary incubator for future public debates, but that doesn’t mean they will become indistinguishable from newspaper Web sites, even if “newspapers” are increasingly based online.”

While the more traditional efforts such as door to door campaigning and petition circulation have not yet been rendered obsolete, as the influence of web based efforts grows the ability to use the newest and fastest growing technologies will become essential to building a successful movement.