Prelude to a response to Peter Daou on the relatioship between media, politics and the netroots

When I told Peter Daou I was writing a response to his recent essay on the state of the blogosphere, THE (Broken) TRIANGLE: Progressive Bloggers in the Wilderness, I was thinking of breaking it down into two parts, one dealing squarely with his idea of triangulation and the other one tackling technology and the netroots. Now I see it would not be enough. We also need to look at the political ideologies and discourses that fire the netroots and how these have an impact on their use, misuse and abuse of internet technologies.

The response then will be a three part essay dealing with the politics, media, technology and the liberal blogosphere.

Part 1 is a quick look at triangulation, how it exists in the blogosphere and how it's counter to building a netroots.

Part 2 starts from the vantage point that how you use technology is affected by ideologies and ideiosyncracies. In this essay I focus on the meanings of "left", "liberal", "progressive" and how their "political activism" or practices are translated into user interaction and interfaces on the net.

Part 3 is but a draft on a proposal on how to bridge the gap between the practices of the netroots and their use of social networking technologies. This in the hope for the advancing a new progressive media.

I love Peter's essays on the phenomenon of the political blogosphere and his insights into the connection between the media and political power. They are thought provoking and insightful. But this concept of "triangulation" has been bothering me for some time now on a gut more than a conceptual level.

It was not until his recent article and my experiences with the NYC 2005 and the Alito hearings that I could put my finger on what's bothering me. It's so simple, and yet it seems that within the liberal political blogosphere, quite difficult to comprehend : nets are not triangles.

So stay tuned. In the meantime (and for background reference) please read the following :

When a blogger grows up : What software and art have taught mea bout the state of the liberal blogosphere

Thanks so much for the invite, Mr. Fundraiser

And follow the link on this own : Another way to put it: the church is an internet and each experience are blogs

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