I'd like to share a must-watch video with you. You will not regret the the 13 minutes it takes to watch this video. In fact, I guarantee you it will inspire you to take action.
This is our nominee:
taking action
If that video inspired you the way it inspired me...and in particular if you missed my previous diary called something to do, I want to make a simple invitation tonight.
In the coming weeks I'll be doing my best to let you know all the various ways you can maximize your effectiveness this summer and fall whether on behalf of the nominee of our party or working for a candidate downticket in a local race. For right now, I'd like to highlight two tools that you can sign up for and learn to use in ten minutes. Both of these tools relate to Barack Obama and his campaign, but the basic principle behind them applies to any campaign in any locale.
sign up and get involved
First, if you haven't already, I'd encourage you to sign up at MyBarackObama.com, or MyBO as they call it in the campaign.
MyBarackObama.com is the social networking wing of the campaign. It's where you can blog, where you can find friends, and where, most importantly, you can get linked up with other folks who support Barack Obama who live near you so that you can take local action together.
For now, I'd like to invite you to join me and a bunch of other readers of DailyKos.com at MyBarackObama.com.
- You'll have to sign up*.
- You'll have to search for and join a group called Kossacks for Obama. (You should also enter your zip code and join a group near you, I'll show you how in the next section below.)
- If you're willing, you can also be my friend! (Hint, my name is Paul Delehanty...search for me, I should be easy to find since I'm an admin of the Kossacks for Obama group along with Democratic Luntz who founded the group. When you friend me, please note in your hello message if you are a local Obama organizer and where. And, yes, I am a bald 39 y.o. guy...you'll see from my pic!)
(*Important: please do not sign up for MyBO using an email address that uses SpamArrest or other Email Verification service. The results are not pretty. It's also a good idea not to use a work or business email address either. My advice would be to create a dedicated address and folder(s) for your Obama activism.)
Once you've done all that, you will have begun to use a tool we didn't have in 2004. Social Networking is a way for you to have your personal space within the campaign to make Barack Obama our next President.
You can blog, you can fundraise, and, most importantly, you can link up with likeminded people near you and all over the USA and abroad. As I wrote one week ago, 2008 is about Organizing Democrats. This is where that starts.
once you're in: get networked
In particular, here are three steps once you've joined MyBO that will maximize how you use the site:
If you are new to MyBO, the most powerful thing you can do with this organizing tool is enter your zip code into the Search Window in three places:
First, on the ACTION/ EVENTS page
ACTION / EVENTS SEARCH
Second, on the FIND PEOPLE page
FIND PEOPLE SEARCH
Third, on the GROUPS page
GROUP SEARCH PAGE
When you enter your Zip Code on the ACTION/EVENTS page you will see a map of actions and events near you. You'll also see how you can create ACTIONS and EVENTS of your own.
When you enter your Zip Code on the FRIEND page you will see a list, (perhaps a really, really long list), of fellow Barack Obama supporters near you. Some of them may be your friends already, some of them might be "friends to be". If you see someone you recognize or know...or someone who is clearly working or volunteering for the campaign, go ahead and click on them and submit a Friend Request. If you're shy about that, you can always invite a few of your own friends to join.
You can also click on the MY NEIGHBORHOOD page for a similar kind of local list:
NEIGHBORHOOD PAGE
Finally, you should make sure to use your Zip Code to search the GROUPS page and join the relevant local and state-wide Obama Groups you are interested in near you. This is the best way to start the process of getting plugged in. That kind of social networking is how we will maximize our effectiveness this year and help elect Barack Obama President and more and better Democrats downticket.
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learning to use a Google Group: join us
Social networking is a big deal. It's actually one of our best new tools for building the kind of offline network we will need to build this summer and fall to make victory in 2008 not just a possibility, but a overwhelming likelihood.
That's what Barack Obama is talking about in that video I posted above.It's on us.
We need to be registering voters and getting folks plugged in...now. You can help with that...and I intend to write diaries that show you how and demonstrate how other folks just like you and me are coming together to make change.
In that light, now, there's one other thing you might want to do: join a Google Group and learn how to form one of your own.
This is really easy. It's more simple than anything you'll do all week.
I'd like to invite you to join an open Google Group, a listserv, called Netroots for Barack Obama. There were 100 of us there last week, there's 200 of us there now. I think we should try to double that again.
A listserv is a powerful tool. Yes, it takes learning how to set your email browser to forward the messages into one folder...or subscribing to a daily digest instead of receiving every email as it's sent. But, once you've got the hang of it, a listserv like the Netroots for Barack Obama google group is an extremely powerful way to stay connected to what folks who support Barack are thinking and doing day to day.
And when you sign up, you'll be able to get notified of powerful new opportunities and ways to help.
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That's it.
Once again, that's all I'm asking you to do this weekend. It will take ten minutes.
However, in those ten minutes you will have signed on to use two tools that we did not fully have in 2004...the Google Group and the Social Networking Site.
With those two tools...in addition to reading your favorite blogs...you will have plugged yourself in to something powerful. (In a future diary, I will tell you about GoogleDocs for making shareable lists and ways of using the Google Groups document to write proposals for your group.)
And that's the point. That's how we will make change in 2008...by coming together and getting organized. We could have given in and folded up the towel in November of 2004...we did not. In 2008, it won't be easy. We have a long summer and fall ahead of us. But, this time we've made a commitment to each other that it will be different.
We've learned, we've grown and we're ready. We know what's possible. We don't know yet what we will attain. There's more I'm going to tell you about down the road.
Yes.We.Can....VOTE FOR CHANGE.