Blogging local

As public affairs and government relations pro's go beyond the traditional political blogs to have conversations with real-life voters about real-life issues, there's an increasing demand to geo-target blogs to match up with Congressional Districts, counties, even cities.

"Blasphemy! The Internet is a global medium!" You say.

Except that I read an article a while back in FP by Pankaj Ghemawat that said "web traffic within countries and regions has increased far faster than traffic between them." It said that 90 percent of all phone calls, web traffic, and even investment is all local. Another smart guy once said "all politics is local," too.

So if all the activity is actually happening in localized communities, is it possible to organize local bloggers of any stripe into a nationally coordinated effort?

Apparently it is if you add alcohol.

There are so many tools available to help build grassroots campaigns, build coalitions, share quick updates, manage events, discuss common interests and issues, invite new participants, and simply improve the quality of life.

Political blogs have driven so much innovation in building communities and grassroots campaigns. The toolkit is available to anyone who wants it and is creative enough to apply those tools in new ways.