David Stern

Name:	David Stern
Location:	Washington, DC

My personal volunteering highlight:

Last summer, I helped to launch the Netroots Platform at NN in Austin. Together with Netroots Nation and an ad-hoc platform committee formed at the conference, we invited members of the progressive blogosphere to produce a collective policy platform using MixedInk. Nearly 200 activists combined their ideas into a 28-page platform and submitted it to the Democratic National Committee, which was then in the process of drafting its own platform.

The Netroots platform committee spoke with Michael Yaki, who was managing the platform development effort for the DNC at the time. Recognizing the significance of our effort, Yaki included an excerpt of the Netroots platform in the official 2008 Democratic platform.

The pilot project earned extensive media attention, providing free, positive PR for both the Obama Campaign and the Netroots. In a broader sense, the project has served as a model for participatory, democratic policy development that others are now replicating.

Relevant links:
http://mixedink.com/netrootsplatform
http://netrootsnation.org/node/962
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Story?id=5647918&page=1
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/08/democrats-2008/
http://www.democrats.org/page/-/pdf/dem-platform-appendices.pdf

More about my volunteering with progressive organizations:

I am heavily involved in MixedInk’s efforts to encourage advocacy organizations and government officials to democratize policy and message development. Most of the advocacy-related projects to date have been done on a pro-bono basis.

Apart from my role with MixedInk, I volunteer for and donate to progressive political candidates. I’ve attended rallies and protests to support progressive causes like avoiding the invasion of Iraq, ending the genocide in Darfur, and reforming the immigration system. I raised funds to benefit low-income AIDS patients through the AIDS marathon program, and also served as a Big Brother.

More about my work on current campaigns and issues:

In the coming weeks, Meteor Blades will be using MixedInk to invite the DailyKos community to crowdsource site policy. We will assist with setting up, introducing and framing the project in order to ensure that the process leads to meaningful, community-driven policies.

What motivates me:

I am passionate not only about the immediate causes the progressive movement is promoting, including universal healthcare and addressing climate change, but also about changing the way policy decisions are made in a fundamental way over the long term. With MixedInk and other new technologies, we can extend the power ordinary citizens exert in government far outside the voting booth. By placing more direct control over key political and governance processes into the hands of the people, we will diminish the influence of the lobbyists, moneyed interests, and pundits whose views currently hold sway.

How I try to motivate others:

In my role as an online organizer of sorts, I’ve learned the importance of:

1) Empowering passionate advocates with meaningful responsibility. Sometimes it feels like there are simply too many of us in the blogosphere for our voices to be heard. We built MixedInk to enable large groups to speak together with a single, powerful voice - to place real power and responsibility in people's hands. When people have ownership over a project and they understand how their actions can have positive, real-world impact, the level and quality of their participation rise significantly.

2) Enabling activists to collaborate with others in pursuit of shared goals. When activists are also able to work with others to derive inspiration and magnify their collective impact, the results are simply astounding.

We motivate people by empowering them to seize collaborative ownership of their movements, their government, and their media.

Where I see myself in five years:

My goal is for MixedInk to become a fixture within the progressive movement. When progressive advocacy organizations and campaigns seek to mobilize support for a particular cause or candidate, they won’t just ask supporters for money; they will ask stakeholders to collectively express their ideas and opinions using MixedInk.

As part of the services we provide, I look forward to guiding these organizations regarding the best ways to effectively integrate the voice of their stakeholders within their overall strategies and align their missions accordingly.

My suggested bumper sticker slogan for the Stand with Dr. Dean campaign:

Universal Healthcare: A Choice. A Right. A Reality!