I have been invited to a meeting about the Netroots in Nashville tonight. I feel honored to be invited and am looking forward to going. The thing is, and this is a little embarrassing to admit, I don’t really know what “Netroots” is.
I mean, I have a feeling for what it is, but I could be way off base. My feeling has always been that “Netroots” is used to describe the left-leaning blogosphere. I know there is a play on grassroots and therefor inherits the idea of a “by the people” kind of movement.
I got into this whole blogging thing because I liked the ideals of free information and felt that it is my responsibility to take advantage of the flattening of the world in regards to information dissemination. Part of that ideal is that I answer to no one. What I post here is a reflection of who I am, what I am thinking, and what my values are (not that most of my posts are high principled or anything).
Is “Netroots” an effort to corral a bunch of bloggers to unify around talking points? On the one hand that would be great because the left tends to be to specific at the detriment of “staying on message”, but on the other hand it feels counter to the beauty of self-publishing.
Regardless, I am really looking forward to learning about the Netroots tonight. It is odd that my career has spanned both technology and politics and yet I am on the outside of the union of the two. Maybe I need to get more involved.
