A Plan to Strengthen the Blogosphere

by Simon Rosenberg

January 2005

As DNC Chair, I'd like to take the DNC and make it a full part of the blogosphere. The principle behind what I offer here is to foment a continual and robust online discussion that the DNC actually is part of and that reinforces an overall Democratic political strategy. To that end, I submit that the DNC needs:

1. Regular conference calls, conferences, and a blog committee of 'netroots' representatives to advise various DNC departments on strategy, research, messaging and outreach.

2. A consistent non-election year blogad budget dedicated to framing and testing messaging, as well as potential seed money for specialty blogs.

3. An internal champion in the DNC to break news on blogs and connect elected Democrats and high level staffers with blogs, bloggers, and effective use of the internet with the goal of having the blogosphere surpass cable news networks in reach and influence.

4. To use the DNC's 3.7 million person email list to create community and promote interesting spinoff projects like and grassroots created quality video and audio content.

5. Regular guest-posting from DNC representatives on willing blogs to talk through organizational, operational, and policy issues.

6. To work with blogs to figure out how to use Meetup effectively as a political tool for state and local parties.

7. To promote a dialogue in which the blogs continue their discussion of the Democratic Party so that we can create the social networks critical to a vibrant progressive movement.

8. To integrate blogs fully into the progressive messaging machine that targets and unseats Republicans and Republican initiatives.

9. A New Politics Think Tank inside the DNC that fosters the sharing of best practices among those involved in netroots politics so as to allow for a supported network of savvy operatives to permeate progressive organizing. This organ would also investigate new technologies like RSS, wikis, podcasting, and their applicability to organizing at every level.

Blogs represent a increasingly democratizing media, and I want to make sure that this trend is encouraged in the years ahead. These ideas are not final, and will evolve in accordance with yours and others' feedback.