There are several hundred, maybe a few thousand, diarists and commenters here at DailyKos. Some are brilliant writers.
This diary is not aimed at any of them.
Rather, it is intended for the lurkers-- the silent majority of the 100,000+ registered users (and possibly greater number of occasional readers) who read but to not write. I suspect this group out numbers the writers by 5 or 10 to 1.
I want to try to tell you how much you are missing.
I lurked for 2 1/2 years before breaking my silence about six months ago. I started to write both to practice persuasive writing (I haven't done this since college, and was pretty rusty), and to try to advocate for ideas I believed in.
The biggest benefit of delurking came as something of a surprise.
You lurkers are seeing just the tip of the DailyKos iceberg. You do not see much of what makes DailyKos DailyKos.
I'd like to start with a few anecdotes.
One day, I saw an article that a utility was going to sell Smart Meters for 80% off. So I emailed some Kossacks I thought might be interested, including Mem From Somerville. She was interested (and had heard about it elsewhere), bought the Smart Meter, liked it so much that she wound up helping the company publicize the energy conservation device. You can read the rest of the story, and the roles that other Kossacks played, in her diary (which made #1 on the rec list) I'm on the teevee. Because of DailyKos.
Another example: While involved with a congressional campaign, I had a couple of problems which needed help from higher-ups to solve. (Both involved granting me-- a random volunteer-- access to somewhat privileged information so I could be more effective.) In one case, I knew a Kossack who knew the person who could solve my problem; it took under a day to get the resolution I needed. In the other case, I didn't know anyone who knew anyone, and it never did get solved (which was a missed opportunity for me and the campaign).
I've got a little list
I've got a few mental lists. One is of Kossacks in my home state. OK, its technically not a list-- just a bunch of people whom I occasionally exchange email with. I haven't quite managed to meet any of them in person, but I do exchange emails, not too infrequently. This has been quite helpful to me, as I've learned from them quite a bit about developments with local political and energy/environmental issues.
Here in DailyKos, my greatest interests have been on energy and environmental issues, and I know several of the Kossacks associated with these. There are several highly intelligent people whom I can email w/ questions or requests for advice/help on these topics, and get a useful answer back fairly quickly. Often my questions have been rather obscure-- but the community is large enough that someone can generally help out. Furthermore, my activities with Energize America has led to all sorts of neat things. I had an email from Bill McKibben forwarded to me. I've argued energy policy with the energy policy specialist of a high-ranking lawmaker, (and I don't mean "exchanged pleasantries with" I mean "argued" (albeit respectfully)).
I do not think these stories are very unusual. They are probably quite common. Many people will have far more (and better) stories than I do of how writing on Kos led to good things happening offline. The diaries of the most prominent (and, often, most connected) diarists are filled with allusions to this sort of thing (read between the lines.. you'll see). These diarists have been helped by other kossacks to better understand the world, to act for change, or with various daily-life issues. (Just to be clear, its definitely a two-way street!) And such stories can often be found in diaries by less prominent diarists, like me.
DailyKos is (mostly) text, so the best writers tend to have the most connections (although there are surely numerous exceptions). But I strongly suspect that everybody who writes more than a few comments for DailyKos develops some connections. And these connections are beneficial both for individuals and the community.
Social capital
Socilogists have been studying these webs of connections for decades, and have coined a term to describe them: social capital. The term has different meanings for different sociologists; I will use the definition by Robert Putnam, (who popularized the term in his bestselling book Bowling Alone)
the collective value of all "social networks" (who people know) and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other ("norms of reciprocity")... The term social capital emphasizes not just warm and cuddly feelings, but a wide variety of quite specific benefits that flow from the trust, reciprocity, information, and cooperation associated with social networks. Social capital creates value for the people who are connected and - at least sometimes - for bystanders as well...
When a group of neighbors informally keep an eye on one another's homes, that's social capital in action. When a tightly knit community of Hassidic Jews trade diamonds without having to test each gem for purity, that's social capital in action. Barn-raising on the frontier was social capital in action, and so too are e-mail exchanges among members of a cancer support group. Social capital can be found in friendship networks, neighborhoods, churches, schools, bridge clubs, civic associations, and even bars. The motto in Cheers "where everybody knows your name" captures one important aspect of social capital. (emphasis is mine)
To cite an example from 2007,a bunch of people working together on a series of plans to reduce energy use is social capital. DailyKos is a vehicle for creating social capital.
Social capital brings large benefits to individuals
Putnam's web site gives several interesting "factoids":
-Joining and participating in one group cuts in half your odds of dying next year. Joining another group halves your odds of death again.
-If you had to choose whether your child was born into a poor state or low social capital state, the low social capital state is worse for the child's outcomes according to the Annie Casey Foundation's Kids Count Index (low birthweight babies, unwanted teen pregnancies, teenage drug use, etc.).
- Social capital is the best variable to successfully predict levels of tax compliance state-by-state.
-If you had to choose between 10% more cops on the beat or 10% more citizens knowing their neighbors' first names, the latter is a better crime prevention strategy. If you had to choose between 10% more teachers or 10% more parents being involved in their kids' education, the latter is a better route to educational achievement.
Social capital makes political change easier
As Putnam points out, think of the role that Black churches played in the Civil Rights era. Much of that was only possible because the churches were so heavily networked and such tight communities.
More recently, Mike Dukakis said last week
"We have to organize every damn precinct in the United States of America—all 185,000," Dukakis told the Observer. "I’m serious. I'm deadly serious. I didn't do it after the primary [in 1988]. Don't ask me why, because that’s the way I got myself elected from the time I was running for town meeting in Brookline to the time I ran for governor."
Dukakis continued, "And I mean starting a year in advance. I'm not talking about parachuting in with two weeks to go. That's baloney. And these people are people who've got to be from the precinct, of the precinct, look like the precinct and talk like the precinct."
I suspect that would be a lot easier to organize a precinct if one knew a kossack who knows that precinct (which becomes easier as the number of intra-Kos connections grows) and if that precinct has strong ties locally (also social capital).
In fact, more connections bring benefits for the entire country. As Al Gore wrote (pg 254 of The Assault on Reason)
In today's world, that means recognizing that its impossible to have a well-informed citizenry without having a well-connected citizenry. While education remains important, it is now connection that is the key. A well-connected citizenry is made up of men and women who discuss and debate ideas and issues among themselves and who constantly test the validity of the information and impressions they receive from one another.
Why I want you to delurk
I think that having more people participate in the community will be good for me, for any pet causes that we have in common, and for the community as a whole.
Social capital is not zero sum. If you gain social capital, that does not mean there is less available for me. If you delurk, I am far more likely to be helped than hurt. The more kossacks I know locally, the more I know who are interested in energy (and the better connected they are), and the better I know them, the better for me both to influence my world and even to remain informed about it.
I don't mean to imply that simply exchanging an email or two is enough.
I want to argue with you. I want to read what you have written and test the validity of my information against yours.
I want you to comment on my diaries, on other diaries of mutual interest, and to write diaries of your own that I can comment on. That is how we form the connections that are the basis of social capital on Kos.
By doing this-- by delurking-- you will bring a host of benefits to you, to me, and to the community as a whole.
Anonymity-- a fly in the ointment?
Many people, myself included, are fairly paranoid about concealing their real identities. If you look through my web-available writings, you may get a vague notion of my profession, you'll get a vague outline of my personal life (gender, approximate age, marital status, etc), you can probably figure out my home state, but you won't get much more than that. (Indeed, although I've never told a lie on Kos, I have planted some information designed to mislead anyone who probes too much.) How can I form social capital if I refuse to tell you my real name?
In my case, I am more open about my identity over email. So some of the people I email with know my real name. But even if they didn't, it wouldn't really matter. They still know how to reach me. I still know how to reach them.
One place that anonymity does hurt me is professionally. I believe my profession is well represented here, and it would probably be useful to get to know more folks in my line of work. Unfortunately, that can't really happen, because my anonymity constrains me from talking too much about what I do. (That sounds so spooky.. so I will divulge I don't work for the CIA.) That's the price I pay for remaining anonymous.
Friendship
I'd like to emphasize that neither this diary-- nor the concept of social capital-- is directly related to friendship. That subject has been covered better than I could. Social capital deals with more casual connections. I don't think these casual connections are any better or worse than the somewhat stronger bonds of friendship, and I think both are necessary for personal fulfillment and being an effective member of your community.
So what are you waiting for?
I don't want to oversell my point. I don't mean to imply that if you make three comments, you will suddenly be deluged by folks who tell you how to buy things for 80% off and get on TV for doing it.
But I do think that if you begin to comment on other people's diaries, and to write a few of your own on your corner of the country/world, that the effect will be much the same as joining your local church or synagogue, going to PTA, or taking an adult-ed course on film. You will meet a lot of people with values or interests similar to yours, and this will probably, in time, bring unexpected benefits.
At leasts that's what I've found. I think that's what most of the thousands of others (a small minority!) who do write on Kos have found, too.
And I'd like to invite other writers to tell some stories/anecdotes of their own in the comments. Tell us about something interesting or helpful that happened to you because of a connection you formed on Kos.
I want the lurkers to see how much they are missing.