It’s simple open source economics.
At the very heart of the Internet economy is something called the economics of abundance. (The Long Tail has long specialized in coverage of this area.)
Because of the Internet, there are more sellers than buyers. Sellers don’t need intermediaries to find their prospects, because the Internet does that for free. It’s buyers who need intermediaries, people (or software) who pick through the virtual bins and offer them good choices. Buyers can now get exactly what they want, and no longer need to accept what’s on the shelf.
The Internet, by its nature, turns traditional economics, and economic relationships, on their head. Ever since the first market stalls set themselves up in Ur (near present day Baghdad) it has been supply that was constrained, not demand. It was the sellers who used intermediaries, not buyers. Sellers developed many types of intermediaries, and buyers would have to pay for these services to find what they wanted.
But now it’s buyer’s intermediaries who rule.
Google is a buyer’s intermediary. eBay is a buyer’s intermediary. MySpace is a buyer’s intermediary.
Open source takes advantage of this fact. Costs are shared among all willing participants, and software grows organically. So too can content, as at Wikipedia.
Now, what does this have to do with politics and political blogs?
Everything, which is why this book I’m working on has the working title of Open Source Politics.
Politicians are accustomed to living in a world of sellers’ agents. TV ads are agenting. Think tanks are agenting. Consultants are obviously agenting. It’s the sellers’ agents who make the money in politics and always have. They sell ideas that are in limited supply. (Here is the stupid way one seller of pens, Lexipen, sees the market.)
But in an open source world, the goods offered by these agents are free, available online. You don’t need a TV ad to announce your candidacy, you do it online. You don’t need think tanks to bring you ideas, the Kos community and thousands of blogs are filled with them. You don’t need consultants to understand the buyers — MyDD will do that for you.
In an open source world, content and agenting move up the stack, not down. Supply is abundant, and comes from the bottom up. This is what the Netroots are all about.
Unfortunately today’s Republicans don’t work that way. This is partly because they have been politically successful for a long time. All the traditional agents lean their way. TV leans their way, think tanks are all on their side, consultants absorb and disgorge the "conventional wisdom" conservatives want to hear.
While liberal blogs are idea factories, conservative blogs have become megaphones, constantly repeating variations of the same refrain. The supply of ideas is constrained by the number of think tanks available to hire thinkers. The supply of ideas is still constrained. A walk on the ocean of a right-wing blogger’s soul will scarcely get your feet wet.
This is because they all share similar assumptions, and a similar worldview that all ideas of value have been presented (and they know which are right). When you live in an -ism you quickly run out of things worth hearing. Think of it as socialist realism in action.
I hate to pick on people but look briefly at a few conservative blogs I still read for my work at Voic.Us. Here’s Bill Hobbs in Tennessee. Here’s the Conservative Edge in Kentucky. Here’s PeachPundit in Georgia.
I know what these people are going to say before they open their editing windows. It’s going to be whatever particular political leaders tell them to say. And I know how they’re going to say it, too — with sneering contempt for anyone who dares disagree.
Contrast that with some of the better liberal blogs in the South — Bluegrassreport in Kentucky, BlueNC in North Carolina, and my personal favorite, Zeldonia in Mississippi. Whether you’re talking about an individual (Ruth in Moss Point vs. Hobbs), reporting (Bluegrassreport vs. Conservative Edge) or community (BlueNC vs. Peachpundit) the liberal bloggers have ideas, passion, and (always) a hint of the unexpected, the conservatives have mainly passion.
What happened in software, what happened in content, what is happening now in online, is also happening in politics. Supply follows demand, not the other way around.
Internet values and open source economics lead directly to open source politics. And that’s how we’ll address our current problems.
The candidate, Republican or Democrat, who best scales this intimacy will win the future. The reality of this campaign will not be televised.
Dana, you’re a liberal so naturally you are going to think liberal blogs are better than conservative blogs. I can’t speak for the other conservative blogs you slammed as I don’t read them, but my blog doesn’t just repeat the GOP talking points, and has for five years-plus been a conservative “idea factory” in Tennessee state politics.
If you had followed my blog for the past five-plus years, rather than parachute in from time to time, you would know that, for example, my blog played a key role in formulating the arguments against a state income tax, and has played a key role in pushing forward the concept of capping the state budget. It has done so by raising the issues, digging out the facts the media (and, unfortunately, the state GOP) don’t bother to surface or explain, and by constantly proposing policy changes and reforms and discussing them with my readers and other bloggers via the comments and their blogs.
You’d know that I created and organized, along with a liberal Tennessee blogger (Sharon Cobb), a series of on the record “bloggers lunches” with various political figures – from Left and Right – with about a dozen bloggers at each lunch, again from Left and Right (and center!).
Further, you would know that I, both personally and via my blog, have been a tireless advocate for blogging itself and for encouraging more people of all political persuasions to blog and participate in the big conversation.
You would also know that a number of my readers have become politically active and policy-active because of my blog.
You would also know that, last week, this blog was the lead blog in pushing the legislature to put more information (floor vote data, amendments, etc) online. That’s not a conservative talking point, it’s an open-access peoples’ right to know issue.
You would also know that my blog pushes for reducing and eliminating the state’s sales tax on food – which happens to be a talking point of the Tennessee LEFT.
I don’t repeat the daily GOP talking points. I don’t even receive the talking points. I don’t listen to Rush or Hannity or any other talk show, right or left, except rarely when driving – I prefer music and sports talk.
The state GOP doesn’t have talking points, at least that I know of.
Dana, you’re a liberal so naturally you are going to think liberal blogs are better than conservative blogs. I can’t speak for the other conservative blogs you slammed as I don’t read them, but my blog doesn’t just repeat the GOP talking points, and has for five years-plus been a conservative “idea factory” in Tennessee state politics.
If you had followed my blog for the past five-plus years, rather than parachute in from time to time, you would know that, for example, my blog played a key role in formulating the arguments against a state income tax, and has played a key role in pushing forward the concept of capping the state budget. It has done so by raising the issues, digging out the facts the media (and, unfortunately, the state GOP) don’t bother to surface or explain, and by constantly proposing policy changes and reforms and discussing them with my readers and other bloggers via the comments and their blogs.
You’d know that I created and organized, along with a liberal Tennessee blogger (Sharon Cobb), a series of on the record “bloggers lunches” with various political figures – from Left and Right – with about a dozen bloggers at each lunch, again from Left and Right (and center!).
Further, you would know that I, both personally and via my blog, have been a tireless advocate for blogging itself and for encouraging more people of all political persuasions to blog and participate in the big conversation.
You would also know that a number of my readers have become politically active and policy-active because of my blog.
You would also know that, last week, this blog was the lead blog in pushing the legislature to put more information (floor vote data, amendments, etc) online. That’s not a conservative talking point, it’s an open-access peoples’ right to know issue.
You would also know that my blog pushes for reducing and eliminating the state’s sales tax on food – which happens to be a talking point of the Tennessee LEFT.
I don’t repeat the daily GOP talking points. I don’t even receive the talking points. I don’t listen to Rush or Hannity or any other talk show, right or left, except rarely when driving – I prefer music and sports talk.
The state GOP doesn’t have talking points, at least that I know of.
Please. . . .since when did tv and thinktanks lean Republican? Hello, CNN, MSNBC, NBC News?
Please. . . .since when did tv and thinktanks lean Republican? Hello, CNN, MSNBC, NBC News?
Righty blogs don’t work? Dan Rather lost his job and his credibility because of the work of righty blogs unmasking the documents fraud.
Righty blogs don’t work? Dan Rather lost his job and his credibility because of the work of righty blogs unmasking the documents fraud.
You’re kidding, right? What world are you living in where you think liberal ideas are ideas and conservative ideas are not really ideas. That’s the most idiotic thing I think I’ve ever heard.
For someone with such an open mind yours seems to be shut solid. For every Conservative or Republican talking point (which there are many) there is a corresponding Liberal or Democrat talking point, one of which is that Liberals are somehow more intellectual and enlightened. And your connection of this flawed premise to economic principles is precarious at best.
Good effort, but you’re better off just acknowledging your biases instead of rationalizing some sort of independent and free thinking mindset that doesn’t exist.
By the way, Bill, you’ve been added as a “Tennesse Blog” to my list of locally active blogs on Logipundit.
Come see us. (you too, Dana :o)
You’re kidding, right? What world are you living in where you think liberal ideas are ideas and conservative ideas are not really ideas. That’s the most idiotic thing I think I’ve ever heard.
For someone with such an open mind yours seems to be shut solid. For every Conservative or Republican talking point (which there are many) there is a corresponding Liberal or Democrat talking point, one of which is that Liberals are somehow more intellectual and enlightened. And your connection of this flawed premise to economic principles is precarious at best.
Good effort, but you’re better off just acknowledging your biases instead of rationalizing some sort of independent and free thinking mindset that doesn’t exist.
By the way, Bill, you’ve been added as a “Tennesse Blog” to my list of locally active blogs on Logipundit.
Come see us. (you too, Dana :o)
I agree with you that the major conservative blogs are just echo chambers. There is a blog called “common sense political thought” where a group of conservatives really get down and hash out ideas. They actually give you the impression that they have THOUGHT about what they are blogging. That is kind of rare on the rightosphere. There is also a guy named John Cole (I think) who really is an interesting blogger. He is really old school and does not get down with the neocon authoritarianism meme.
Being really homogenized and speaking with one voice is why republicans win. But it also means they are boring as hell and not suited for an atmosphere of freewheeling opinion and ideas. We liberals rarely win a damn thing except by accident, but we are really what most decent people are: We can’t even agree with ourselves half the time and anyone with an interesting or novel new opinion might just change our minds – sometimes a couple of times a day. We are not certain that we are right, nor are we certain that anyone else is right. We just have to go with the information we have at hand and see if it works.
I agree with you that the major conservative blogs are just echo chambers. There is a blog called “common sense political thought” where a group of conservatives really get down and hash out ideas. They actually give you the impression that they have THOUGHT about what they are blogging. That is kind of rare on the rightosphere. There is also a guy named John Cole (I think) who really is an interesting blogger. He is really old school and does not get down with the neocon authoritarianism meme.
Being really homogenized and speaking with one voice is why republicans win. But it also means they are boring as hell and not suited for an atmosphere of freewheeling opinion and ideas. We liberals rarely win a damn thing except by accident, but we are really what most decent people are: We can’t even agree with ourselves half the time and anyone with an interesting or novel new opinion might just change our minds – sometimes a couple of times a day. We are not certain that we are right, nor are we certain that anyone else is right. We just have to go with the information we have at hand and see if it works.
I’ve been to the conservative blogs they are just a bunch of generaliztions and are common with a lack of common sense. But maybe I’m not being fair I mean sure whenever the repulicans get a chance they kick liberals while they are down and invite them to a said open-minded debate but will lash out with redundant rhetoric answers generally out of context there was one blog that said liberal emotions vs conservative logic hello it dosn’t take a much brain power to see who are the scientist and who are the evangicals even the bible says use your brains but conservatives seem to do little of it I hope they start because I want a good debate soon not some childish adolesencent misconception. Futher more more college students are liberal by political research so its no wonder so many are conservative with so few headed to college
I’ve been to the conservative blogs they are just a bunch of generaliztions and are common with a lack of common sense. But maybe I’m not being fair I mean sure whenever the repulicans get a chance they kick liberals while they are down and invite them to a said open-minded debate but will lash out with redundant rhetoric answers generally out of context there was one blog that said liberal emotions vs conservative logic hello it dosn’t take a much brain power to see who are the scientist and who are the evangicals even the bible says use your brains but conservatives seem to do little of it I hope they start because I want a good debate soon not some childish adolesencent misconception. Futher more more college students are liberal by political research so its no wonder so many are conservative with so few headed to college
Interesting, but usual =)
Interesting, but usual =)