Virtual suicide: An alien's perspective.

Much fuss was made over how Howard Dean embraced the power of the internet, by harnessing its ability to reach the far flung corners of the USA and give everyone a voice.

Personally, i'm pretty impressed by Dean's site, and the level of contribution from constituents compares with huge sites like Slashdot. Also, considering this is the first time it's been done like this, its success is well... stunning.

Having lost a few caucuses and things recently, in the lead-up to the democratic convention, now it appears this harness may be starting to strangle him. (37 signals post - "Blog Comments as News") A comment in a blog may not be newsworthy, but then again, the news we get is always after the event.

Unless you trawl the Dean site all the time and keep up, it's difficult to know what's going on in there with all the activity. What i'm curious about is if the very success of blog could also turn Dean's consituents away from him if it becomes infected from the inside... imagine if you could represent the 'wave of sentiment' graphically in a blog of that size.

Many reports from Washington State caucus goers included a description of the voracity of Dean supporters who rallied around entrances and sign-in points with flashy campaign posters, being a little more than in yer face.

Give those pesky petit bourgeois a voice, and look out.