Lessons Learned from Howard Dean's Digital Campaign

Howard Dean's campaign use of Web technology has had a lasting effect on politics. Their Internet-based tools had 2 goals: raise funds and raise the level of participation. They broke all fundraising records ($50 million during the campaign) and invigorated a volunteer base the like of which had not been seen before. The talk will describe tools including the Web site, the blog, fundraising tools, and online meet-up tools. The culture and the tools employed during the campaign offer important lessons on how the Internet can be used by any campaign and any political party to organize distributed masses of people to collaborate for active participation in the democratic process. Campaigns from local races to national campaigns have adopted the techniques developed by Dean for America.