Sunday, January 25, 2009

Change Camp: A "New Media" Model for Savvy Republicans

Let's look at something actionable by our tech-savvy young and new Republicans: A GOP “Change Camp.”

The idea came after I visited the ChangeCamp website. It is classic Millennial civic activism, and I think a brilliant concept.

It asks a question many ask themselves, but I'll twist it a bit: "How do we re-imagine government, citizenship and conservatism in the age of participation?"

In the next days the National Republican Committee will select a new National Chairman. Many of us have paid at least cursory attention to all the politicking involved. While none has offered a chicken for every pot, none have struck me as particularly new media savvy. That's hardly encouraging for a political party mired in second...in a two party system. So why not build “participatory production” with a participatory event as its foundation?

Event organizers described the event as a “free participatory web-enabled face-to-face event” - STOP! FREE?! You mean we'll hit folks up for donations, right? NOOO! Paradigm shift required!! Time to find event sponsors or pony up directly to support this event, and not pass on the costs nor fundraise. This is an investment in both the near and long-term viability of Republicanism, if not conservatism. They called it “a solutions playground open to anyone, where admission and ideas are free.”

The Toronto event brought “together citizens, technologists, designers, academics, policy wonks, political players, change-makers and government employees to addresses the demand for a renewed relationship among citizens and government.” Interesting...it's called coalition building. What failed in the last election cycle for Republicans?

The event sought “to create connections, knowledge, tools and policies that drive transparency, civic engagement and democratic empowerment.” In other words, an activated, “proofed” social network that could drive civic activities at various levels.

The organization's mission is “to innovate how Canadian governments engage with citizens in an age of mass participation on the internet. We hope to ignite a distributed and self-organizing movement in cities across the country.”

Is that different that the mission of the Republican Party, from local clubs to national committee?

Three things the GOP sorely needs now: “Social Proof” that the Republican bandwagon is the smart place to be. A Social Network that connects the membership in more ways than tech-y glitz. And the ability to transform the network into a “participatory production” machine, able to assign and deliver on tasks, from recruitment through resource management to “get out the vote” activities.

The GOP needs an event like this! Sounds like a way for young and new Republicans to make the changes necessary for victory in '10.

6 comments:

  1. I attended ChangeCamp yesterday. We actually did try to recruit a few conservatives, although given the attendees it was hard (Toronto's urban/technology community is very progressive as a whole...)

    It was a completely awesome experience though - the energy and enthusiasm among attendees was strong and remains as much today. As much as a fired up and ready to go GOP scares the bejeezus out of me, I'd highly recommend giving it a go.

    You'd have to be careful not to define too far in advance what "conservative" or "Republican" means - let that emerge from the grassroots. This process will simply not work if you silence various facets of conservative thinking by decree.

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  2. Thank you for your kind words about our ChangeCamp event in Toronto yesterday. I am the lead organizer and facilitator for the event, and we are really pleased with the outcomes and the important new conversations we began.

    Your post made me realize that I need to revisit and edit the ChangeCamp mission. ChangeCamp is strictly a nonpartisan open creative community and event framework. I would caution any partisan organization from attempting to use the name ChangeCamp to describe any similar event that was strictly for partisans.

    There is no doubt in my mind that the re-imagination and renewal of the conservative movement in the United States is necessary for a vital polity and an engaged electorate. Topics like these would be exciting, welcomed and encouraged at a ChangeCamp in Maryland, should the community wish to organize one.

    But an event that is exclusively organized by Republicans for conservatives is not ChangeCamp. It could be very effective at achieving your goals, but it would not be ChangeCamp.

    Having an open event that inclusive of all ideological leanings and party affiliations encourages the cross-pollination of ideas and resources. I would encourage you to engage the community in this new way with an open mind and a light touch.

    Mark Kuznicki
    ChangeCamp Organizer

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  3. Great idea! Count me in! I have been part of #TCOT on Twitter and that is a start of sorts, but it has been also a somewhat painful reminder that many conservatives simply don't know how to communicate beyond their friends very well.

    I am also in Maryland - up here in Odenton.

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  4. Mark, I truly appreciate your comments regarding the non-partisan core of yesterday's ChangeCamp, and apologize if I at all violated or misappropriated that tenet. My intent was to point out what was going on in Toronto yesterday, and how it pulled participants and positively channeled their participation.

    I was perhaps inartful in my blog, not intending to co-opt or usurp the ChangeCamp "trademark" for any partisan purpose. The blog will be edited to clearly make that separation so there is no mistake. You are welcome to make that point yourself on this site whenever you choose.

    My sincere congratulations to ChangeCamp and its participants for their dedication and contribution to a more civil governance.

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  5. Brian, thank you for clarifying! I totally encourage you to try the format. My progressive friends might be horrified to know it, but I'd even be happy to provide advice from our experience.

    I claim no Trademark on "ChangeCamp", but it is a "community mark" and is defended by that community.

    I'm encouraged by your efforts to open the process of party renewal and to engage young people in an authentically participatory and open conversation.

    Your challenge will be to engage new voices to whom the "Republican" and even "conservative" brands have been poisoned by recent experience. Positioning an event for partisans only may only reinforce current biases and group-think without the opportunity for fresh perspectives.

    If it is partisans who need to rethink and reimagine, putting them into open and unfamiliar territory with diverse participants may be the most effective thing you can do to help shift ideas about what it means to be a conservative in the 21st century.

    Good luck with your efforts.

    Mark Kuznicki
    ChangeCamp Organizer

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  6. Reinforcing what Mark suggests yet slightly disagreeing: I think the model can be applied successfully around a small "c" conservative notion explicitly.

    To do so, however, would have to involve and include many who some capital "R" Republicans have actively alienated - e.g., people like Andrew Sullivan (whose book The Conservative Soul is a insightful read), libertarians (e.g., the folks at Reason and Radley Balko at The Agitator...), eco-conservatives (e.g., those who have come to be aware and concerned about environmental degradation largely because of their intimate knowledge of local ecosystems and their fragility...) and many others.

    A small "c" conservativeCamp is something I'd actually attend out of personal interest, if only because I agree with large components of the three currently frustrated conservative bases noted above.

    As long as a conservativeCamp would feel inviting of my own perspectives on the notion of what conservatism entails, it would be consistent with the notion of ChangeCamp.

    This noted, I suspect such inclusion may frustrate the hell out of some wings of the Republican party who are all too eager to make their own peculiar frame of reference on moral and social issues a universal mandate, often buttressed by equally peculiar and certainly debatable interpretations of the word of God.

    You can and must include such people in a conservativeCamp, but must resist their urge to make anyone's selective, exclusive dogma become a universal mandate applied to all. That's not conservatism - it's fascism, and should be called out as such.

    (N.B. the same applies to the totalitarians of the left, which certainly exist and frustrate me even more, if only because I'm inclined to agree with them more and as such am viscerally offended by their tactics...)

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