Welcome to the Democracy Cell Project. Since the mid-1980s, I have been working with online communications as a grassroots activist, a non-profit communicator, and an electoral campaign staffer, a period in which we have witnessed one of the epochal changes in how our species communicates about how to understand the world we share. My two lodestars along the way have been George Orwell and Lawrence Goodwyn, author of Democratic Promise: The Populist Moment in America. (For more on Goodwyn, see here, here, and here.)

In 2004, I had the great fortune to be the blog moderator for John Kerry’s presidential campaign, working with an amazing group of volunteer online moderators. We all saw, up-close-and-personal, what political discussion and debate was like in the no-holds-barred arena of a campaign blog with open comments—there was no moderating of comments before they were posted.

But contrary to the conventional wisdom of “polarized” politics, we found that time and again, it was possible to change the hearts and minds of people, provided that they were willing to engage in critical, thoughtful, evidence-based discussions. As a learning experience, it’s hard to imagine a better place to see and feel the power and intensity of online conversations as a way to change the world.

During the campaign, I also saw that every single online volunteer became part of local on-the-ground operations, leaving their computers behind to go out into their communities to talk with friends, neighbors, or strangers. (One of my favorite examples came from Seattle, where DiAnne Greiser set up tables in the evening outside gay bars and registered huge numbers of new voters.)

Democracy Cells are my way of thinking about how to blend field organizing with online organizing. Online media can play a powerful role in helping people learn what they need to know in order to be effective citizens. The barriers to communicating knowledge and information have never been lower.

I will be posting 2 or 3 times a week about how people are using these communications tools to analyze the structural foundations of the problems we face. And I will be encouraging critical thinking about how online media facilitate change from below, using the growing body of exciting examples from struggles for peace and justice around the world. I welcome your comments, criticism, and participation. I look forward to sharing our ideas and concerns with you, and thank you in advance for broadening and deepening the conversation in this learning community.

(For more details about the history of the DCP, please see About Us.)

A recent message from my friend Joe Conason reminded me of how difficult it can be to answer one of life’s oldest questions: How do we know anything about the world? (I worked with Joe years ago in Cambridge at the late lamented Real Paper.)

For those of you with a more philosophical bent, you will recognize this question as epistemological.

But you don’t need to brush up your Greek to get the message in this case: if there is some significant change taking place that potentially threatens the stability of the world economy, and the media largely fail to report on this change, then it becomes impossible for the public to understand what is afoot, much less to use the political process to reduce or eliminate the threat.

Did the media do their job? Reporters and media outlets have issued after-the-deluge claims that they were on the ball, pointing to this or that story that discuss problems in the markets for subprime mortages and exotic financial instruments like CDOs.

“I congratulate President Obama on being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This is an honor of the highest magnitude and all Americans should be proud of this recognition. Since his inauguration, President Obama has taken great strides to elevate America’s standing in the world. Under President Obama, America has returned to its true spirit and core values – global engagement, alliance-building, and respect for international human rights and treaties. The Nobel Committee and the world have taken note of America’s renewed commitment to responsible leadership.”

Woz is always ahead of us...

September 24, 2009 3:35 AM

woz said:

Monkey Magic - no doubt you will bounce back to us after this surgery or treatment to your beautiful heart.

I'm sending out my best recovery aussie thoughts and songs to encourage you through this journey. My hopeless sense of direction is well known so I'm sending them simultaneously in all directions at all times day and night so that some of them will connect and make you smile and feel better.

I look forward to hearing that all is well with you and that you are in full swing once more.

We join her in sending our best wishes for a speedy recovery to monkey!

And all of us at the DCP also send our best wishes for speedy recoveries to Christy and Woz who have been suffering through their own health issues.

Take care all of you! We need a lot more people swinging from those trees and keeping Monkey company!

The time has come for the Republican Party to find their own Lieberman. Though Lieberman only had to take a stand against Presidential bj's, the Republicans need to find someone to take a stand against racism, violence, hate speech, and gun-carrying-killers.

Like these.