I Only Write For Publications With "Tom" In The Name

In addition to that TomDispatch article, here's another new piece I co-wrote, from TomPaine.com:

Armchair Activism That Works

One of the most remarkable, unexpected developments of the Internet has been the explosive growth of Wikipedia. At first glance, the Wikipedia concept—that thousands upon thousands of volunteers working with little central supervision can create a huge databank of accurate information—seems untenable. And yet the Wikipedia bumblebee flies anyway. While not flawless, Wikipedia has become an invaluable resource, with detailed articles on everything from arithmetic to geodesy to the movie "Zoolander."

Can progressives make this power of networked volunteers work for us? Some are already trying. Last year, Josh Marshall’s TalkingPointsMemo.com asked the site’s readers to in turn ask their members of Congress, on the record: Do you support Bush’s plans to privatize Social Security? A regular progressive organization would have needed a large, expensive staff to make the thousands of necessary calls—if, as non-constituents, they could have gotten responses at all. But by working together in a mass electronic barn-raising, Marshall’s thousands of readers got this critical information quickly and easily. Moreover, they had fun doing it and became more loyal to the site in the process.

The rest.