Some Things

This post is part of an ongoing series of posts about the Web 2.0 and its role in the American presidential election 2008. The main purpose of this series is to provide a platform for discussion among the members of our group and, in true Web 2.0 spirit, everybody else. It will lead into a series of podcast episodes. The series is being written for the seminar “Campaigns & Candidates” at the University of Osnabrück in the winter term 2008/2009.

I would like to give a little bit of background information on the term „Netroots“ since it has been used quite some times in our presentation and this blog. It may be important to understand what it means and what the difference between this and the developments of “web 2.0” we mainly discuss about are.

The term “Netroots” consist of the words “Internet” and “grassroots”. It should be clear what “Internet” stands for, of course, the “world wide web” – hint: you are using it right now.

The term “Grassroots”, used to describe political activism, means a movement which is driven by the constituents of a community. It derives from the base or the ground, like a grass plant from its roots. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it is natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures. (weiterlesen…)