O'Reilly Nation also knew, or thought it knew, that much more would be possible in the future, as the tools that had come into politics kept growing and the social momentum crept up. Here, Trippi was more like an Apple executive speaking to talented developers, who have to be convinced to keep developing a cause--a platform--that everyone knows may be lost. Other heads of big enterprises spoke: Wes Boyd of MoveOn.org, Scott Heiferman of MeetUp.com, David Sifry of Technorati, and Tim O'Reilly himself. Jeff Jarvis lifted the killer quote from O's welcome: "User contributions are critical to market dominance." If this becomes true in politics, what does politics become?
The interesting thing to me, a rookie at tech conferences, was that in the sphere I was visiting (without a laptop, which was very dumb) innovation by Net and other means was a normal condition. That's what the people at the conference are "about." Things were expected to change as new and powerful tools came within reach, or someone sprung them on the unsuspecting.
The premise of platform replacement is casually accepted in this crowd because it happens all the time. In politics, in journalism, in campaigns, a system overhaul is anything but normal. To me this is one of the great contributions techies have made to politics, which can always use people who see that things could be very, very different. (Micah Sifry, a writer for The Nation, has a yes, but view: "People here talk like all that's needed is better tools, and then people will pick them up and take back their country from the powers-that-be. There's almost no sense of how hard organizing actually is, or why.")
Net literacy was, of course, sky high among this group, political savvy less so. And so Trippi came to teach, as well as explain what happened in the crash, and defend himself from critics, including that morning's Los Angeles Times. It carried a "hey, possible controversy" story about Trippi's firm billing the Dean campaign. (See the Washington Post's deeper analysis and Ed Cone's commentary. Trippi's defense is here.)
First, he wanted to show how much the "Net roots," as he called them, had accomplished in a year: January to January. "That's why I am here today," he said, "because I think you started something amazing... a dot com miracle." (His soundbite phrase for Monday.) "It must survive Howard Dean and his candidacy."
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