Update [2005-10-7 21:1:55 by Mike Stark]: With the exception of Jerome a Paris, I don't have a commitment from most of the people listed. I'll be sending emails out next week soliciting their cooperation. So take this as a draft... I expect that a few may treasure their anonymity...
As many of you know, I am working on a book about us. I am still soliciting profilees, so if you want to nominate, make the flip, read the second block and make your nomination.
Mostly, however, I wanted to throw out this first draft of the book proposal's overview for criticism. I expect to massage this critical piece several times over - it's going to be make or break in terms of sellign the idea.
So help me out. Read the first block and tear it apart.
Finally, I've got to do this. PartyPoker.com has an ingenius marketing department. They've invited bloggers to participate in a poker tournament. The only fee is that I post this link with this registration number: 3272582. It's my diary, I like poker and I want in. So shoot me if you think it's spam - most y'all know me and know I'm no abuser of the system.
Meet the Kossacks
By Mike Stark
Started in May of 2002, DailyKos.com has grown from the personal passion of one person, Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, into the behemoth of the political blogosphere it is today. As THE hotbed for progressive political discussion, DailyKos is now more trafficked than the entire conservative blogosphere. Over 70,000 users have registered, and daily, more than 700,000 pages are served.
Key to the success of DailyKos is its community enabling infrastructure. By requiring each participant to register and post using an original username, the site has built a method of anonymous identification tracking. Individual users have built reputations and unique, identifiable e-personalities. As if in real space, the DailyKos community has evolved. Leaders have waxed and waned, users have come and gone, various balkanizations have assembled and disintegrated and, through it all, participation has steadily grown.
A need has arisen. People recognize some usernames... Meteor Blades... Jerome a Paris... Mary Scott O'Connor... Kid Oakland... Armando... Pontificator... georgia10... Mike Stark... Other usernames are less recognizable... OrangeClouds115... ksuwildcat... SadTexan... VolvoLiberal... mayan...
All these people have come together to form a community, but nobody has any solid idea of each other's real-space identity. Each username provides an almost impenetrable cloak of anonymity. It's practically impossible to merely place a face with a name. Unless a user has uploaded a picture of him or herself, you may find it impossible to even know if OrangeClouds115 is male or female. Occupations are unknown. Socio-economic and family status? Education? Physical location? Hobbies? All of these things remain, for the most part, unknown.
"Meet the Kossacks" will change that. The book will profile between fifteen and twenty interesting users. It will begin with the most prolific and recognized contributors and then move on to some lesser known but, perhaps, more interesting members of the community. User's liberalism will be the only unifying theme. Profiles will include a soldier from Virginia, an ex-pat banker living in Paris, a lawyer from Miami, a college student from Ohio and a stay at home dad (that likes to call talk radio) from Albany, NY.
The purpose of the book is two fold. First, it will serve as a community "insider's-guide". Secondly, it will present liberal partisans in a sympathetic light. At a time when so many right leaning pundits and polemicists have made a profession out of demonizing and destroying the motives and reputations of leading democrats and liberals, this book will demonstrate - in a humorous and endearing way - that income redistributionists, tree-huggers and pacifists also happen to be our soldiers, bus drivers, teachers, bankers, business owners and health care workers... In short, we are everywhere. And we are taking over.
Tentatively, I've decided to write a book about us - the New Left. It will cover Guerrila Media artists (freeway bloggers, yes men, talk radio call-ins), interesting Kossacks and anti-establishment leaders that are innovating the resurgence of progressive America.
Tentative title idea:
Guerrilla Media, Kossacks and the New New Left
How They Are Spanking the Elephant
I'm looking for candidate Kossacks to be profiled. An unfortunate result of the incredible growth of DailyKos is that, so far, it has been difficult to meet others in the community and know each other as flesh and blood. Oh, I know... if you live in NY or LA or Chicago, you might've found a time to meet up with your compatriots... or perhaps you learned of Kos from a friend you met at a Howard Dean meet-up... but for the most part, we really don't know a lot about each other.
I want to change that in a small way. I'm looking to profile 20-30 people... And I need your help determining who that's going to be. I'm accepting nominations.
HEY!! YEAH, YOU! Please don't nominate your favorite writers. Think about it from my perspective: if all you know about hte person is that they write great diaries, well, I probably know that also... and the fact that someone has a knack for research and wordsmithing is not going to fill a chapter of a book. I need people with interesting life stories... Self-nomination will probably be the best way to go. Do it by emailing me if your shy...
that said, I'm definitely going after KO... having read some of his work, I just KNOW he's got a neat story.