My hope for OEN

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My hope for OEN

I am a new OEN member and like people that discover something they were looking for, but have not yet found, I may be a zealot for OEN. There has been some discussion as to what is OEN, in that is it a blog, a news source, or something else but for me at least, that is not the important thing. I thought I had coined the term “citizen journalism” while we were traveling in Asia this past winter. It was after I stumbled on to OEN when we were in Vietnam. Regardless, the term has stuck in my mind and I think it describes OEN quite well. In 1999/2000 I was active on Slate.com shortly after it came on the scene and at that time, Slate was a place that represented both sides, in that there were people posting that supported both sides. Michael occasionally came on the scene but overall it was posting by the average citizen. After the 2000 election, I guess the board, as we called it in those days sort of disappeared and I lost that connection. I am convinced that OEN can become a major player in the political process and in that, there are some inherit dangers, in that Rob could be offered a huge sum of money. I am not saying that he would but lets face it, come up with a great idea and if someone offers you a lot of money for that idea, you have to make a decision. That is one thing OEN may have to deal with. Rob, I am looking at this with a pragmatic eye, no accusation is intended.

I got mail today from the Tinkleberg campaign, as I had followed the link that was posted on OEN and made a small contribution.  For those that did not read that post, Tinkleberg is running against Michelle Bachman from Mn. She is the one that accused Obama of, as Poor Palin said, “hanging out with”------ . The bottom line here is that Tinkleberg raised $750 K from this episode.  How much of that came from OEN readers, I don’t know but I am betting that I was not the only one. That gives the average citizen a great ability to influence the process, one that thus far as been the playing field of special interest groups and people of wealth. As I have previously stated, Howard Dean brought the Internet into the political process and has now been taken to the next step by Obama. Obama has raised over 150 million dollars in September alone and I would guess that is hard to match even by corporate America. In my humble opinion, that is power.

One thing I would hope for OEN, knowing that we are called a liberal site, is to be more inclusive of all political thinking. I don’t think anyone is excluded based on his or her political proclivity, but I would think we could all profit if people of all political persuasions would feel welcome. In the same vain, I would hope to see more and more people in other countries participating. I have spent a great deal of time in Indonesia and there are some amazing people in the world’s largest Archipelago, and to have them participate would profit us all.