Progressive Democrats of Cambridge - DFA - Blogosphere

Wainwright and the Blogosphere

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 06:25:09 -0700

Recently I was invited, along with a number of other progressive bloggers, to a meeting with Wainwright Bank president Robert Glassman, to discuss how the bank could engage the progressive blogosphere. As an avid customer since around 2000 or so, I was excited to attend. The meeting was yesterday afternoon, and I think it was fascinating and, I hope, the beginning of a wonderful relationship.

One idea which was tossed out (and accepted, it seems) early on was the concept of Wainwright advertising on local progressive blogs. This seems like a no-brainer to me - why not advertise to a receptive audience? - and I said as much. It sounds like the bank will start that up relatively soon.

Most of the meeting focused on how Wainwright could establish its own blog, and what the ramifications of that would be. Because banking is a heavily regulated industry, the bank apparently must be very careful in its public positions, and that was a recurring theme throughout the meeting. I'm not sure what the regulatory restrictions are, but I imagine there are some which are obvious (for example, the bank may not give out account numbers and social security numbers), others less obvious (the bank probably has some information on stock trading and things like that which it can't reveal), and others which I have no idea whatsoever about.

Nevertheless, I think the group came up with some good ideas for the kinds of content which could appear on the blog. In no particular order:

Financial and money management tips
Highlights of the bank's services or its practices in supporting progressive causes
Guest posts from non-profit clients of the bank or from bank employees and customers
Commentary on news in the financial sector, or news which relies on a lot of banking jargon (e.g. the sub-prime lending scandal, the bankruptcy reform bill)
Commentary on political issues generally, like the war in Iraq or environmental issues (it sounded to me like a lot of people thought this might backfire, and I agree)
The "inside scoop" on the bank, including things like the bank's history and how it got to the place it is today, and brief views into a small part of the bank's board meetings.
Discussion of recent customer complaints, and what is being done to address them.

There are probably some other ideas I'm missing, but those were the highlights.

There was a bit of discussion on whether the blog would have comments. I certainly hope so; a blog is all about conversation, and without comments, you have no conversation. It's almost not worth the trouble. Of course, there's a danger that the comments could get ugly. But I think that danger can easily be mitigated in several ways:

Avoid posting on things which aren't really related to the bank, e.g. posts on political issues which are not financial in nature, or which are not guest posts from non-profit clients.
Treat commenters with respect. If someone has a beef with the bank, don't delete the comment or denigrate the commenter. Treat the commenter the same way you would a customer who is standing at a teller station.

And really, that's about it. The big bad blogosphere really isn't so bad, and in practice it's usually quite easy to satisfy fellow bloggers and commenters.

There was also a discussion of who should write the blog. I think many people assumed that Mr. Glassman would write it himself, but I disagree. I think it should be edited chiefly by a paid staffer, with Mr. Glassman and others guest posting from time to time. I know that would seem perhaps more condescending to some in the blogosphere, but it wouldn't seem that way to me personally. I don't have much time for blogging, and all I do is run a very small web development shop. I can't imagine I'd have much more time if I was president of the seven-hundredth-largest-bank in the country (or president of the 8000th largest bank, for that matter.) Not only that, but a chief blogger is going to have a lot more time to be able to really understand the blogosphere and have a proper conversation with them. Finally and perhaps most importantly, a chief blogger would probably not receive the same degree of scrutiny from regulators that a bank president would.

I certainly hope Wainwright will eventually establish its own blog, as I think that'll be an exciting development in the world of our local progressive blogosphere. It's exciting to have a bona fide institution as a partner, and there are a lot of interesting things you can do with such a relationship.

Along these lines, I mentioned briefly an idea I had about how the bank could really work together with the progressive blogosphere. The idea is to have the bank offer a turnkey business-creation package for progressive bloggers. Using this service, a blogger could have a legal entity created, proper paperwork filed with the state and federal government, and a business account (established at Wainwright, of course), all in a matter of a few hours, just by walking into a branch, filling out some simple paperwork, and maybe paying a small fee. I'd imagine not all bloggers would want to use such a service, but it could be really useful for those who really want to try and make some money from their blogs.

For those who have heard me go on and on about my pie-in-the-sky ideas for my business, this idea will sound familiar. I'd one day love to create an incubator for progressive businesses; if Wainwright were to offer such a service, it would be a great first step in that direction!

Also, I should mention that there's been some hesitation from other bloggers in attending the meeting, because they felt that they were just helping Wainwright figure out their marketing strategy for free, and/or are being asked to provide free advertising. I had some worries about that before the meeting, but they are pretty well allayed by now. As liberals, we are all very suspicious of being manipulated by corporations, and corporations with a progressive image are sometimes the worst offenders. That skepticism is healthy, but it should not be so strong as to wall us off from bona fide allies. If we are going to build a lasting movement for real progressive change, then we are going to have to build (or work with) institutions to keep the momentum going. Just as the union movement in the 1930's needed newspapers, union halls, solidarity committees, and all sorts of other supporting institutions, so will we need think tanks, media outlets, and yes, banks, to aggregate political and financial capital to support our causes. We should not hesitate to establish those institutions when we need to, but we certainly shouldn't re-invent the wheel when we have a perfectly solid ally, as we do with Wainwright.

I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Planning the Progressive Caucus

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 08:10:03 -0700

Barring some unforeseen event, Kerry Healey will lose the gubernatorial election. The Massachusetts GOP will be dramatically reduced in power and influence and, realistically speaking, for the next two years and probably the next 4 - 8 years, it will be a minor party.

On November 8, there will be two major political parties in this state: the Democrats, and the progressive Democrats.

What can we do to build up the progressive Democratic party?

To be clear: I do not advocate that progressives should split from the Democratic party, and form their own party. I'm not even sure we should use fusion voting, if Question 2 passes.

I *do* advocate, and emphatically, that progressives should have a caucus in the Democratic party. That caucus should be a political entity in its own right, with a separate website, media presence, process for endorsing candidates for office, and possibly a fundraising arm.

The purpose of the caucus would be to coalesce progressive strength within the Democratic party, to allow progressives to act cohesively to reform the party and to hold officials accountable to progressive principles.

Another purpose of the caucus would be to shift the center of power in political media coverage. For better or worse, the media landscape of the past 16 years has portrayed political power in this state as a balance act between Republicans and Democrats. Even after Healey loses, there will be temptation in the news media to perpetuate that narrative, even though it will no longer be valid. Progressives have more power in this state than do Republicans, and they deserve more media coverage in order to promote and circulate their ideas. A progressive caucus within the Democratic party which can visibly demonstrate its electoral and legislative might will rapidly draw media attention away from the Republican party, and start to shift the narrative of political coverage.

The twinklings of such a caucus are already very much active. On the one hand you have a constellation of groups I would call collectively the "netroots": DFA groups, PDA groups, the MA blogosphere, a group of rowdy drunkards, and of course the MA Roots Project.

On the other hand you have larger, more established, very powerful groups, like MassEquality, Neighbor to Neighbor, SEIU, and the state AFL-CIO. I would call these groups collectively the "establishment progressives." Quite often the netroots see eye to eye with the establishment progressives, although we do have our differences. (There are, of course, some differences of opinion within the netroots, but these are comparatively rare.)

I propose that the netroots and the establishment progressives together form a progressive caucus within the Democratic party, for the purpose of highlighting and coalescing the strength of the progressive movement in Massachusetts. Each group would have some share of representation within the caucus, and the caucus would have the power to endorse candidates for office in the Democratic primary. The caucus would also make a concerted effort to publicize its candidates and its shared vision for Massachusetts; for example, it could coordinate on proposing amendments to the Democratic party platform.

The hope is that such a caucus would facilitate communication and coordination within the progressive movement, and would help to shift the statewide political debate and media coverage from a Democratic/Republican axis to a progressive/conservative Democratic axis.

I can imagine any number of problems or objections to this idea. What are yours?

(Cross-posted to Blue Mass Group)

Outside In Harvard Square

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 19:27:34 -0700

Blog for Cambridge is famous!

A new website, Outside In, is promising to display blog content for neighborhoods all over the country, using tagging and aggregator feeds and all that great semantic web stuff. The site is very much still in test drive phase, but it looks pretty good so far.

If you follow that link, you'll see that Blog for Cambridge features prominently in the Harvard Square neighborhood. Sweet!

Thanks, Outside In!

Update: Jesse K-B chimes in, asking:

When in the hell did I become one of the "most connected local experts" in Cambridge!?

My guess: somewhere between the protests at the Cambridgeside and the photos of graffiti.

Cambridge blogosphere just keeps on growin'

Mon, 25 Sep 2006 08:47:38 -0700

Via Sam Seidel's blog, I see there's a new blog in town:

Green Streets Cambridge is the official blog of the Cambridge Green Streets Initiative. They're not new, just new to me - the blog has been going since about March 2006. In Cambridge blogosphere terms, that ranks them in the old geezer category. Right now the blog is pushing Sept. 29 as Walk/Ride Day. Drop by to learn more about how you can get around in an evironmentally friendly way!

And via the Chronicle:

Cambridge Blog is the Community News Corporation's blog of Cambridge affairs. For the most part it prints useless tidbits (Such as today's hot item! Celebrity couples get less scrutiny in Cambridge than in Hollywood! Stop the presses!), but every now and again it gives you a rundown of the agenda at upcoming Council meetings, so that's not too bad.

Check em out. Coming soon, an update of my blogosphere links section.

What happened in Connecticut and why it matters in Massachusetts

Tue, 08 Aug 2006 19:35:40 -0700

As I write this, about 84% of the precincts in Connecticut have reported, and Ned Lamont holds a 4% lead in the Senate primary there. So I'm not sure what happened in Connecticut, for sure, yet. But I do have some idea of what happened in Connecticut. Sort of.

The Leiberman campaign, for the last two months or so, has claimed as its sworn enemy the crazy liberal blogosphere. They kept this line of attack open to the very last day, when they claimed that they had been of the victim of what, in the blogosphere, would constitute some kind of capital offense: a denial of service attack against their server. (By the way, speaking as a web professional, that claim is the stupidest thing I ever heard. If the campaign had called our office yesterday at 3 pm, we would have had their website back up by the close of business yesterday.)

Tell you what though: Leiberman was right, the liberal blogosphere is behind this. Sort of. What's really happening?

Over the past two years or so, the liberal blogosphere has developed a solid conventional wisdom; Crashing the Gate is a very good summary of the blog CW as of about December 2005 or so.

I believe that liberal blogosphere CW has deeply embedded itself within the machinery of the CT democratic party. That's why a former chair of the party came out for Lamont, and that's why many other "machine Democrats" came out for Lamont at the state convention a couple months ago. They were tired of Leiberman, or the war, or whatever - largely because of the ideas which had been developed on the blogosphere and had insinuated themselves into Democratic conversations throughout the state. Where else were they hearing those ideas? Not on Fox News, I'll tell you that.

In short, Leiberman was right that the blogosphere was his downfall. But he was maybe two or three years behind the curve! By the time he realized that the blogs were causing him trouble, it was too late. The blogosphere CW had successfully insinuated itself into the Connecticut Democratic machine. And once he lost just enough of the Democratic machine, Leiberman was toast. There's no way you win a hotly contested August primary in Connecticut without the solid support of the machine.

That leaves me with a very big question: how much has the liberal blogosphere insinuated itself into the Massachusetts Democratic machine?

I think that the gubernatorial race provides some insight into this question. Deval Patrick is the darling of the Massachusetts netroots, and has garnered a bit of big-blog love from the MyDD/DailyKos wing of the liberal blogosphere. He's also won a surprising degree of support from the insider Democrats at the state committee and in the ward and city committees.

But what does that mean in terms of the blogosphere CW embedding itself into the machine? Could it be, for example, that Deval Patrick charmed the pants off of all these insiders? Could it be that Patrick out-liberaled his opponents, and that they didn't care about all that "accountability" and "reform" hogwash you hear on the liberal blogosphere?

Well for contrast, consider the treatment that John Bonifaz received at the hands of the insiders. It's a much, much colder reception. His nominee totals at the convention were much lower than Patrick's. He's been getting a lot of heat about his alleged support for Green party candidates in the past. And so on. Bonifaz is what you might call the poster boy for the netroots: he's all about accountability and reform, and he's a procedural liberal through and through. The netroots in Massachusetts have supported him, albeit that support is not quite as deep as it is for Deval Patrick.

Again, there's no telling why the machine and the netroots are lining up in the Bonifaz race. It could be that the Secretary's race is just not that sexy. Or maybe Bonifaz isn't as sexy as Patrick?

I don't know, and it may be a long time before we really know. There is a big question mark in my mind right now: How much of the blogosphere CW has embedded itself inside the Massachusetts Democratic machine? Will it make a difference this year, or in the future?

One thing I do think is most likely true: to whatever degree my "embedding" thesis is true, I'm positive its mostly true - in the way I've described it - in deeply liberal areas, like the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic, the upper Midwest, and the West Coast.

It may be much more true in more conservative areas. Sounds strange, right? But my guess is that most of the people who are showing up at Democratic party headquarters in the Plains, the Mountain states and the Southeast are the people who started out reading blogs and decided to see if they could find other like-minded people in their areas. They showed up, I'm guessing, and found Democratic committee spots open for the taking, and they took 'em. And then they took over their Democratic party. Check out the Alabama Democratic Party's web site, or North Carolina if you like, and tell me I'm wrong. This is a very different process, if you think about: the blogosphere isn't insinuating itself into the Democratic party, it's becoming the Democratic party.

Anyway, what are your thoughts? Has the blogosphere embedded itself into the MA Democratic Party? If not, will that eventually happens?

Update: Before I finished writing this post, Leiberman conceded defeat. Huzzah!!!

Blogger's Night at Drinking Liberally is tomorrow!

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 09:29:02 -0700

Hey Bloggers!

If you write, read, or comment on a blog semi-regularly, tomorrow is your night!

Boston Drinking Liberally will be celebrating all kinds of bloggy goodness tomorrow, July 11:

July 11, 7 pm
Middlesex lounge
315 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge

Please note our new time - we are now meeting every Tuesday at 7 pm.

Drop by and meet your fellow bloggers, blog-readers, blog-lurkers, and other denizens of the blogosphere. Have any thoughts on the governor's race? The constitutional convention? Cape wind? With tons of online opinion makers on board, we'll be sure to have a great conversation about Massachusetts politics.

If you're not one already into blogging mania, don't worry! This is your chance to find out how to get plugged in to blogtopia. Wondering how to get started with a new blog? What to post about? How to deal with trolls? Stop by and get your questions answered!

Blogger's Night should be a great time for all - both old-timer bloggers and those with an acute fear of blogs. See you there!

BlogLeft Lt. Gov forum

Thu, 18 May 2006 12:06:08 -0700

Decisions, decisions: who is your pick for Lt. Governor this year?

Fortunately, we've got a lot of choices, but that means there's a lot of information to gather.

Luckily for you, the Massachusetts lefty blogosphere is holding a Lt. Governor forum this Saturday:

Because of the flooding up in Lowell, the Lowell Senior Center will still be in use this weekend as an emergency shelter, and therefore won't be available for the Lieutenant Governor forum scheduled for 2 pm on Sunday, May 21.

WHERE: Lowell Telecommunications Corporation TV studio, 246 Market Street, Lowell, MA

WHEN: Saturday, May 20, 2 pm

WHY: To choose the next Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts

If you'd like to suggest some questions for the forum, leave a comment on Blue Mass Group.

Crash the Gate with DFA Cambridge!

Fri, 12 May 2006 09:18:57 -0700

NOTE: The time for this event has been changed to 8 pm. We apologize for the inconvenience.

The authors of two of the most influential blogs on the planet are coming to Boston!

When:
Tuesday, May 23, 2006, 8:00 PM

Where:
Middlesex
315 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02139

kos (from DailyKos) and Jerome Armstrong (from MyDD) have spent the last six years in the trenches, fighting the Bush Regime tooth and nail since they stole the election in 2000. Now kos and Jerome have written a book, "Crashing the Gate", about what the liberal movement needs to do to beat these clowns and start restoring some common sense in our government.

Join us for a great conversation with these two amazing bloggers! If you haven't yet bought the book, you can pick it up online at Powell's (http://www.powells.com/n/99/biblio/1-1135578370-0) or offline at the Harvard Bookstore (1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge).

For more information, visit the Crashing the Gate website: www.crashingthegate.com

Co-sponsored by Boston Drinking Liberally, Democracy for America - Cambridge, Democracy for America - Boston, Blue Mass Group, and Suffolk Law School Democrats.

Shout out from the 'bridge, a response to Craig Kelley

Tue, 09 May 2006 08:00:21 -0700

First, there are some mad props for BfC on View from the 'Bridge today. Thanks Jesse!

Jesse also brings up some interesting back-and-forth about the city council's vote to censure the president recently. Councillor Craig Kelley wrote in the View from the 'Bridge comments:

I think that Cambridge City Council's voting to censure the President was bad strategy because to folks in much of America, if it's from Cambridge it's left-wing, whacky and probably should be dismissed out of hand. We want places like Dallas, TX and Biloxi, MS to be up front on this issue, not Cambridge and Portland, OR. Those of us on the left have already made up our minds that Bush needs to go, those on the far right never will and there's a struggle for the folks in the middle. To that group, Cambridge simply isn't a good messenger for this message.

I disagree, sort of. In the main I think censuring the president isn't particularly useful unless it comes from Congress. (I also happen to think the "Impeach Bush" movement is sort of whacky - yes, he is clearly a criminal and deserves impeachment and conviction in the worse way. But who would you rather have as president? Dick Cheney? Dennis Hastert? Condoleeza Rice? Maybe we should focus on more realistic and desirable goals, hmm? Like, I don't know, electing a Democratic Congress? Or lowering the cost of a T token?)

Regardless, I don't think we should neglect our capacity to lead just because some people think "People's Republic" when they hear "Cambridge". Our liberal reputation is an asset, not a curse, because we can be on the forefront of defining "liberal" for the rest of the country.

Is Cambridge an inviting, exciting, equitable, affordable, safe and comfortable place to live? Have we found a way to provide good jobs and affordable housing for our residents? Can we keep crime down without intruding on civil liberties? Can we come up with creative, energetic solutions that our cities can borrow?

If the answers to these questions is "yes", then we can show the rest of the coutnry that liberalism is about energetic, diverse, majoritarian democracy. Resolutions to censure the president won't change the red-staters minds, but creative solutions for affordable housing might.

DFA Conference Call to Announce Patrick Endorsement

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 07:35:54 -0700

DFA is having a conference call today to announce its endorsement of Deval Patrick. From the DFA Press Release:

WHO/WHAT: Deval Patrick and Democracy for America Chairman Jim Dean will hold a blog/internet media conference call to announce DFA’s endorsement of Patrick. (Following brief opening remarks, Patrick and Dean will answer questions from bloggers.)

WHEN: Monday April 10, 1:00pm-1:30pm

TOLL-FREE CALL IN: Please RSVP at press (at) devalpatrick (dot) com to request the call in number and code.

There's two new sherriffs in this (blog)town

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 08:08:56 -0700

The Cambridge* blogosphere is growing by leaps and bounds!

First up is Left in Cambridge. The blog is new but the author isn't new to blogging, so this blog is going to be a firecracker! Already I love the "Cambridge graffiti" series.

Next is From the Port, a blog specializing in accessibility issues in Cambridge. From the Port focuses on items which most of us don't think about because we take our ability to get around easily for granted. But for folks with disabilities, questions like what material the city uses to pave park paths are of vital importance. This blog is a great resource for anyone who's concerned about accessibility in Cambridge.

Yikes! Pretty soon I'll need to overhaul my blogroll. Keep it up, Cantab bloggers!

* It's true, the Cambridge blogosphere is itself a bit of a loose concept. There are lots of Harvard blogs, for example, but I don't count them among the Cambridge blogosphere since they cover mostly Harvard affairs or national affairs, and not so much Cambridge affairs. That's not to denigrate the fine efforts by the folks at Cambridge Common, Dem Apples, and other fine blogs, of course. They're doing a great job afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted in their own neck of the woods.

CampusTap launches at Harvard

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 07:06:42 -0800

This is pretty cool: a group of Harvard students started a new website called CampusTap. It's sort of a blogger-for-Harvard sort of thing (as far as I can tell), which lets students easily start new blogs, find others, etc. It's got comments, folksonomy tags and all that good bloggy stuff. Cambridge Common has made CampusTap its new home.

One comment gang: please bring back the RSS feeds!

Welcome Sam Seidel to the Cambridge Blogosphere

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 09:46:22 -0800

I've just added some links to other Cambridge blogs. Right now the Cambridge blogosphere is heavily anchored by Harvard student blogs, notably Cambridge Common and Dem Apples. But there are still a few non-student blogs, and today we welcome Sam Seidel to our number.

Sam was a city council candidate last year, and is now a columnist for The Alewife (which I count as a newspaper rather than a blog, although it's a fuzzy line). He's an expert on urban planning, and his posts on that topic have already been superb.

Welcome to the 'sphere, Sam!

Advertising Dem Apples

Tue, 14 Feb 2006 06:32:58 -0800

The Harvard Dems are looking for a few good slogans. My suggestion:

Stickers, petitions, and other distractions