Mashup: Don't Fight the Internet : Advocacy and Political Organizing

This Link: O'Reilly Radar > Web 2.0 Compact Definition: Trying Again. has kick started another level of thinking about network-centric advocacy and organizing in the age of connectivity.

We are not after profits but social change. We are not building software companies but advocacy and political engines.

What is the meaning of "the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform." in advocacy and political contexts? Who is the network?(the people and the social, issue and brand bonds among them) and how can the people be "the platform" for change? (we become a functional mechanism as a unit ... not just through organized nonprofits or parties)

"Think deeply about the way the internet works, and build systems and applications that use it more richly, freed from the constraints of PC-era thinking, and you're well on your way." In our context of advocacy we need to understand the way these large scale people networks work and build systems of change or campaigns that use these networks in new ways and freed from the constraints of organizational organized change.

Much like the new world of software development we need to think of campaigns in perpetual beta. Campaigns are not set by decree and packaged and rolled out to a public in precut brochures and media events. New campaigns like beta software are "process of engagement with your users" support by network staff supporting and adjusting the product based on valid feedback.

As a movement, we must "Open your data and services for re-use by others, and re-use the data and services of others whenever possible. ("Small pieces loosely joined")" from mediadata to government contacts to creative commons of our reports, polls, opinion research images and other works.

We must "build applications that reside in the space between devices. ("Software above the level of a single device")" We must look at the social and issue ties across the movement and build campaigns and resources to serve those campaigns in a way that they are not locked into silos of companies, organizations or issue groups. We must create issue and campaign commons and the rules needed to protect the commons.

There are lots of quotes and bits here to chew on but the "advocacy network as platform" is the next step to movement as network"

Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. Chief among those rules is this: Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them. (This is what I've elsewhere called "harnessing collective intelligence.")
(Eric Schmidt has an even briefer formulation of this rule: "Don't fight the internet." That's actually a wonderful way to think about it. Think deeply about the way the internet works, and build systems and applications that use it more richly, freed from the constraints of PC-era thinking, and you're well on your way. Ironically, Tim Berners-Lee's original Web 1.0 is one of the most "Web 2.0" systems out there -- it completely harnesses the power of user contribution, collective intelligence, and network effects.