I wanted to call your attention to an interesting diary that showed up on DailyKos recently titled MetaDailyKos: Community and Collaboration.
The diary profiles two ongoing, successful projects at DailyKos — Diary Rescue and Energize America. Energize America was also discussed and presented at the energy panel at YKC 06.
For those interested in getting their own progressive projects up and running, it is definitely worth a read. This passage from Jerome a Paris sums it up well:
As a first point on process, I noted the role of my diaries which became, through sheer repetition and persistence, the meeting point of the energy wonks on dailyKos, and compared this aggregation role to that of dailyKos for progressives in generals. We come there because others interested in that topic are there as well: the "location" information begins to have as much value as the content itself (i.e. people come to dailyKos not necessarily because they love the content, but because thye know that this is the place where others, friends and co-progressives will be there, and where the topic of urgency to the community that day will be discussed).
The second point on process is linked to the technology of dailyKos. The ability to recommend diaries gives them visibility if there is quality - or a desire by enough to give a topic, in this case energy policy, prominence. That visibility attracts more participants and more comments. Comments provide input, corrections, additional information. Ratings can then be used to assess that additional information, and to flag the most relevant, interesting or useful.
