social networking writ large

Roger Cohen on social networking, politics, and the Dem primary

Obama's use of the internet for fund-raising and to support grassroots organizing has been generally acknowledged as game-changing.

I don't know much about HRC's campaign organization, but from what I've read, it's largely based on the big-donor and city-machine model that has until recently been considered "best standard practice." I think this is part of Cohen's point.

I think Cohen is right about "blindness", and it's an important point. Social networking in any era scales only to a certain size. Hierarchy is an organizing mechanism that allows scaling beyond physical proximity without the use of technology. Telephone and radio allow scaling to larger and dispersed organizations. The internet allows scaling further.

Barring some surprising reversal, Obama has defeated HRC in the race for the Dem nomination because (among other reasons) he has a better toolkit.

But Cohen doesn't clearly distinguish the tool - in this case social networking - from the uses to which the tool can be put. He recognizes the distinction:

connection is no panacea, or guarantee against violent threats: Al Qaeda uses the Web effectively. But without understanding connectivity, you can no more beat terrorism than win an election.

It's been said that "you need a sharp knife in the kitchen, but you can cut yourself with a sharp knife."

The interesting question is, what will Obama do with the tool when he's president?