Why Kos is like DMI, Why DMI likes Kos

Elana Levin

Why Kos is like DMI, Why DMI likes Kos

Crossposted at Howie Klien's great blog - Down With Tyrannny! (and thank you Howie for letting me guest blog).
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Kos_ad_125x60 I'm one of those lucky people that got to attend the Yearly Kos conference as part of my job. I had a conversation with a journalist at the conference who asked me what I thought about Markos and Jerome now authoring books and appearing on TV. "Does that mean that bloggers just want to be print journalists after all? Is blogging just a training ground for the major leagues? "

I explained (patiently) that Kos still blogs all the time. And then I got into my real point. Which is, to bastardize and misuse the Marshal McCluhan line, the medium is the message.
Blogging is intrinsically different from print journalism. Blogs transform a formerly one way message machine by enabling grassroots activist to leverage their collective power to pressure the traditional media to cover what they should be covering any and to pressure their elected leaders to um.. lead.

Blogging is inherently more populist than reporting because there is a discussion between the blogger and the audience. The audience becomes the writers too. The blog poster and the commenters craft the message together and ideas come from that interaction. Blogs are by nature more democratic in that way (though doing things like rescuing diaries is important to preserving that).

You guys know this. That's why you blog. You've probably even read Peter Daou's jaw-droppingly good analysis THE TRIANGLE: Limits of Blog Power which shows how blogs can be leveraged to create progressive political change. Now here's the connection: next Thursday the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy (my homebase) is honoring Markos with our Drum Major for Justice Award. He's being honored along side Anna Burger and Wynton Marsalis. Last years honorees were Arianna Huffington and Harry Belafonte. Yeah, the Harry Belafonte that's been on the front lines of the civil rights movement since before it had a name.

So why on Thursday, July 22nd in NYC is the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy giving Kos an award named after a Martin Luther King speech? (Btw tickets are still available and less than half price if you are under 30)

Ok here's why:

More than anyone else online Markos has empowered countless "lay-people" to weigh in on the issues of the day right along side the so-called experts. By opening up the blogosphere to the public at large Markos helped promote a whole new platform for insightful voices fighting for change. Some of these bloggers spun off to make their own mark on the blogosphere and the world at large - one immediately coming to mind would be David NYC.

So Kos is about bringing the insight of folks outside the beltway to the table. That's a lot like what DMI is doing with our DMI Fellows program. A lot of the experts that reporters and policy makers go to for ideas are academics, or media celebrities. DMI wanted to empower voices from outside the ivory tower to weigh in on public policy.

So who are these upstarts and what do they know? Our fellows are all grassroots organizers with proven track records of creating social change and impacting policy. But as you've probably noticed, the voices of grassroots organizers are often excluded from the debate so DMI's Fellows program gives these grassroots leaders the research and communications support they need to weigh in on the policy that they deal with everyday,. They know these policies from first-hand experience. By bringing these voices to the debate we have helped impact policy outcomes, impact the public discussion and there is even more to come.

So DMI understands why Kos's work in the blogosphere is important for creating change. When policy is made in a vacuum it rarely reflects the way things work on the ground. We need new voices in the policy debate that had been excluded in the past. Both Kos and DMI are all about that and that's why we are so excited to honor Kos.

And heck after totally rocking Meet the Press I think the netroots can pat ourselves on the back for showing that the spokespersons we develop can deliver a sharp message too!

Even after Yearly Kos a lot of people still don't understand the netroots. But then there are still some people who think the earth is flat and that raising the minimum wage leads to fewer jobs. But I do think the reason why some people still don't "get it" about blogs is because they don't understand how something can exist that is so horizontally constructed rather than top down. When the idea of people power is alien to you, it's hard to understand the blogosphere, or Kos, or why a think tank in NYC that was born out of the civil rights movement and brings grassroots voices to the table would be honoring Kos.
So join us if you can on Thursday and promote people powered policy.