(Actually bumped at 2:31 p.m.
- promoted by Chris Bowers)
Summary
Over the past five years, as the audience and political effectiveness of the progressive, political blogosphere has exploded, the "short head" of the progressive, political blogosphere has undergone a transformation from a loose collection of small, independent, solo projects into a sophisticated media and activist structure driving the national political scene. This transformation has the side-effect of significantly increasing the entry costs into the "short head" of the progressive, political, blogosphere for new, independent actors. As a result, what was once a fluid, "outsider" and "open" form of new media is now, quite possibly, crystallizing into a new "establishment" all its own.
Introduction
This article was originally scheduled to appear in the first issue of JONI, The Journal of Netroots Ideas, to be published by the organization responsible for the YearklyKos Convention. Instead, it will serve as the first installment in a collaborative project between Open Left and JONI. Articles scheduled for print publication in the journal will first go through a series of directed discussions online, and those discussions will eventually be incorporated into the final JONI project. In the case of this article, the editors of Open Left and JONI have posted a series of questions alongside the piece to help start, and direct, discussion. As you read the article, please examine these questions, and consider providing an answer to one or more of them in the comments. This is an important project that will help define the progressive blogosphere to a more off-line political world.
Also, I have to admit that I enjoy making a lengthy article about the difficulty of breaking into the "short head" of the progressive blogosphere my first post on Open Left. In short order, this website will become a direct test of the theories I present in this article.
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