Grass Roots Planted In Cyberspace

GRASS ROOTS PLANTED IN CYBERSPACE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Jose Antonio Vargas]
If there's a social networking site that John Edwards is not a part of, we'd like to know what it is, pronto. No one's sure exactly what role these sites -- a.k.a. socnets -- will play in the upcoming election. But whatever it is, Edwards isn't taking any chances. The man's flooding the zone. He's on the big ones: Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, et al., but he's also on some of the most obscure sites -- Blip.tv, 43Things.com. In fact, the former senator is signed up in at least 23 socnets -- more than any other presidential candidate. And that's not counting John Edwards One Corps, his own networking site that campaign officials say has 20,000 members and 1,200 chapters across the country. All the presidential hopefuls are online. Everyone's got a Web site. A few hired full-time bloggers and videographers. Most have MySpace profiles, just a click away from "friending" a supporter. Yet Edwards has taken his Internet presence a step further, fully exploiting the unknown possibilities (and known pitfalls) of the social Web, online strategists say. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), judging by the number of friends on MySpace or number of views of his YouTube videos, may be the most popular online candidate, Republican or Democrat. But Edwards arguably has the most dynamic Web presence -- he's everywhere, doing everything.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/29/AR2007032902382.html
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