*Below are the six best practices that I noticed from my analysis of netroots sites on both the left and right. The ten web sites analyzed were Moveon, Democracy for America, Democrats.com, Democratic Underground, Michael Moore, TownHall, Free Republic, Media Research Center, American Family Association and American Conservative Union.

Analysis of these ten web sites revealed six best practices that benefit online activist web sites, which in turn help political parties and social causes. While the most powerful movements are spontaneously built from a true grassroots movement, it is possible for existing organizations to pushmovements forward. As the Internet becomes more powerful in the American political process, online activism is likely to play an integral role in most campaigns.

(The Obama campaign should pay attention to #5 & 6, which were written before the Myspace incident.) 

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Be happy that I don’t vlog. The pasty complexion and dark circles that are now etched under my eyes aren’t pretty. But I’ve been planted in front of Edmund of Dell for the past two weeks when I wasn’t at work sitting in front of the computer in my cube. My goal this week, aside from writing a 3-year PR plan, group dynamics paper, and a proposal for an independent study this summer, is to catch up on my sleep. I’d actually like to look decent for commencement services on Sunday.

Did I mention one little thing? 

At approximately 1:50 a.m. on Monday, May 7, 2007 my thesis is completed! It still needs to be printed and bound, but some things can be left for tomorrow.

So 75 pages, 44 footnotes, 25 graphs, 2 appendices and countless blog post later, I am finished with the project that I’ve obsessed over worked on for the past five months.

Now everyone needs to read it. Well, I’m only going to force those who are bound by blood or life-long friendship to thoughtfully analyze all 75 pages. Therefore, if I share your genes, have been in your wedding, attended your wedding, listened to relationship problems, listened to complaints about your own thesis, and/or made sure you weren’t passed out drunk in a ditch (EVER), you’re reading it!

Actually, if you want to read it, shoot me an e-mail. I’m also working on an executive summary to send to a few people who are interested but don’t want to weed through the entire thing.

Maybe tomorrow later today, I’ll post a few excerpts. For some reason, whenever I blog about politics or communication, my hits practically triple. Either my insights into the world of political communication are just that amazing, or my life is boring. I choose the former, because well, I have quantitative data that shows only 6-7% of Americans blog and those people are much more interested in politics than the general public. Plus, I’d hate to think that my life is dull, and my writing about said life is stale. 

Even though it’s now 2 a.m., I’m too giddy to go to sleep. However, by the time I arrive at work tomorrow, I probably won’t be that giddy. What’s it like to go to bed before 2 a.m.? I really can’t remember.

Oh! I just realized that I graduated from college 3 years ago. Good thing college me can’t see what happened to grad school me. She’d still be at a party somewhere on Frat Row with Mrs. M., who probably also would have freaked out to see where her life is now. Actually, most of the Gamma Sig crowd would probably be there too.

Thesis due in 6 days.

2 a.m. Every night. Crosstabs. Content Analysis. Statistics.

Stress. Everyone around me freaking out.

Sixty pages. How can I proof 60 pages?

Reconnected with client last night after 2 months of calling an e-mailing.

Entire strategic communication campaign and web site to write in one week.

So tired. Just want to sleep. Need vacation.

Ran across this interesting talking point on *MTV’s Rock the Vote site today while researching voter turnout for the 18-29 group:

With Democrats depending on young voters for their election showing, Republicans will have a strong incentive to win the margin back for 2008. Historical data shows that when a person votes with one party for three consecutive elections, that person stays with the party for life. If Democrats should win the youth vote again in 2008 there could be serious long-term political consequences—as the generation increases its voting turnout over time and becomes a larger share of the electorate.

My first thought was, “Awww. I was planning on voting for Hillary, but I cast my vote for the GOP in 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006. Looks like there’s no hope for **2008.”

My second (and more serious) thought was, “That’s really bad news for the Republicans. No wonder I feel like one of the only conservative twentysomething women out there. I am.”

These numbers make me feel even more alone:

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With the final draft of my thesis due on May 8, I’ve been a little consumed by it. This weekend, I finally made myself read three books that I’ve been putting off for this project. Yes, I read three entirebooks–Trippi’s The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, The Influentials and Godin’s Unleashing the Idea Virus. All three are excellent books that I should have read long ago. The Influentials should be mandatory reading for anyone in the marcom, political or business fields. The bad thing is that these books keep referencing other books that I need to read. The cycle never ends.

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Yesterday in practicum class two representatives from a major worldwide communications firm spoke in class about their Web 2.0/social media/new media/online/blog efforts.

It’s refreshing to see that some of the big players realize that they need to implement these strategies. During their presentation, several points stood out:

• The people who engage in the blogosphere and social media are opinion leaders.
• Clients are hesitant to engage in Web 2.0 because of the control issue.
• New media, especially blogs, act as a check on the media.
• This is the democratization of the mainstream, established media.

Now where have I heard these points before? Possibly here or here?

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Vol Abroad has an interesting perspective on my recent 2.0 post on the GOP. I really wish that I had the opportunity to contrast activities in the US, UK and France. I think it would provide some great travel opportunities perspectives. Namely if 2.0 activities are the direct result of what my professor named, “underdog innovation.” However, by the time I get to a PhD program (e.g. pay off current degree), I hope that these issues will be resolved.

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My multi-tasking skills have been strained as of late. Too many wonderful opportunities going on and things to do. I’ve come to the conclusion that I could just sit around blogging all day, reading blogs all day and then playing with the new 2.0 toys that I read about in all the blogs. When my eyes start to glaze over, I could go and volunteer since I’m trying to pick my volunteer work back up and be a bleeding heart conservative again.  Sadly, I have to work. AU ain’t cheap, and I still have 9 expensive hours left.

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Thanks to a pesky mid-term, I’ve been out of the loop and completely missed the buzz over the past week about the GOP’s lack of web 2.0. This is covered in my thesis topic (I’m writing from the perspective of online activism), and I’ve spent the past three months agonizing over finding research. Suddenly, everyone is talking about it. Since I’m never one to miss a party, I have to share my thoughts.

I honestly believe this comes down to a change in the foundation of communications. The issue is who controls the message. I’ve mentioned this before, but our comm models are changing. There’s no longer one sender transmitting information to numerous receivers. There are multitudes of senders transmitting to each other. The sender/receiver function is largely interchangeable now. If there’s one thing the PR world loves, it’s control. This is a fundamental change in the way we operate, and it’s encountering massive resistance from the establishment. Very few practitioners are embracing this perspective. It’s largely coming from the tech people, who don’t always understand the ways of marcom.

Why is this relevant to the issue of the Republican Party and Web 2.0? The GOP is the main example of this greater issue in the communications field. Of course the pundits don’t really care about this since their main goals are getting the candidate elected, the bill passed or the party in power. However, marcom blogs have been murmuring about the control issue for a while, but it is just now gaining traction because the election is coming up.

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Ummm…the blogosphere is about to explode with my thesis topic. I don’t know whether I should turn cartwheels because my topic is that cutting edge or cry because I spent all weekend writing 30 pages on a topic that the experts are summarizing in 500 word posts.

Kung Fu Quip has a good wrap-up of the chatter.