The New Communities

"For e-marketers, probably the most interesting phenomenon of the current political season has been the astounding success of Howard Dean's fundraising effort. His site, DeanForAmerica, has allowed a previously unknown former governor to raise millions of dollars, much of it in small donations. While this is a pretty major accomplishment, most of the media have missed the real Dean campaign story. His success doesn't stem from raising money online. That's relatively easy to do from a technical standpoint. Rather, he's used the Internet for what it's really good for: connecting and organizing people. Lessons from Dean (and others, like John Kerry) about using the Internet to bring people together are ones all marketers should pay attention to."