We've got an ace or two up our sleeves, going into the home stretch of this election. Follow me for a bit as I explain ...
Just a couple months ago, a party of 2000 people was thrown in a park in my home city of Copenhagen, without being organized by any official city agencies, commercial interests, or non-profit organizations. It was organized by 10 friends, who got together and arranged for the proper permits and promoted their party on Facebook. Within 4 months, their event had over 10,000 members, many of whom showed up and brought other friends.
Planners target 1000 at party ... 2000 show up
This is what Facebook, and some other social networking sites, can do. And right now, it's a resource that is dominated by the left. At this moment, Barack Obama's main supporters page has 1.7 million members. John McCain's has less than 1/5 that many.
It's time to put this IMMENSE organizational advantage to full use.
It is no trouble to put together an event page or a group page on Facebook. When it is created, the members can be given access to post information and comments, including pictures and video links. In this manner, Facebook pages and groups can function as a community in a manner similar to DailyKos.
What is needed is engaged membership. To get that, there needs to be enough members to start to create credibility and excitement. If we advertise a Facebook event or group through DailyKos, I think we can take care of getting the ball rolling in that sense ... and the members should be exactly the sort of people that will be able to contribute productively.
With a large and engaged membership, there must be a point to the site. Obviously, such a page can function to get information out ... but I think that many members would already be versed in finding good clips and information through other channels. As a better ultimate use, such a page would organize people around some sort of activism ... encouraging them to get some key message out to OTHER people, in a way that could possibly generate media attention on its own (as the party in Copenhagen did in Danish media).
For example, if 500,000 people all created T-Shirts bearing the same message (sharpie pens on white shirts) and wore them in the week before the election, starting on the same day, it could generate a national buzz and the message could be reinforced to millions of people. Or if 1,000,000 people printed out a small poster or two with bulleted points and pinned them up by their workspaces, it could again reach and create dialog with millions of coworkers days before the election in a way that would ring of powerful solidarity. A coordinated forwarding of an online video to friends, family, and coworkers, if done in an organized and tasteful way, could be devastatingly effective, as well.
HERE'S WHERE YOU GET INVOLVED!
I'm asking for people reading this diary to come up with ideas for a Facebook event that could draw tens of thousands of members and get them to act in unison. It could be a contest, a united action, or a common message delivered in some unique way. Place your ideas in the comment thread, discuss, and I'll post another diary in the next few days to hold a vote for the winner.
Then, I'll make the page and encourage all Facebook Kossacks to join and create a new idea battlefront to aid Obama toward victory!