User:Debracleaver

About me: This is my first attempt at a user page, so please forgive me for mangling both convention and expectation. I've been working at the intersection of of technology and democracy since 2004, which makes me an old timer in the field of "civic tech." In 2004, I helped a friend launch a project called Swing the State. Folks would register with us online and we would help them travel to swing states to register voters and run get out the vote (GOTV) programs with nonprofit groups such as League of Conservation Voters, America Coming Together, and ACORN. Swing the State was one of three organizations using the internet to coordinate and deploy volunteers. The other two were MoveOn and Driving Votes. Swing the State was reasonably successful in terms of volunteer hours, but it opened my eyes to the power of the internet as an organizing tool. Keep in mind that this was so long ago that bloggers and the like would spend endless hours discussing whether the "Netroots" were the new "Grassroots" communities. (Now of course online organizing is an entire industry)