Ryan Asks You Everything

Instead of my normal Ask Ryan Anything Monday session (although, I'll admit, I've forgotten to do it for the past 2 Mondays), I thought I'd reverse the situation and ask my readers everything.... err, well, a lot. I'm writing a paper for my civil rights class on the rise of netroots and its effects on today's civil rights movements and grassroots organization. I figured I'd post an open call for what everyone thinks about the rise of netroots, blogs and other technological aspects that have changed the landscape. What are your thoughts on "meta?" How do readers of this blog interact with netroots - just read blogs, donate online, get their news from alternative sources, write blogs? Is blogging journalism, activism? Something in between? How do you participate in the movement? What kind of specific things do you guys do - organize rallies online, regular meetings (like the Draft Gore or Drinking Liberally events), engage in conference calls, google groups? How do the netroots impact the issues you hold near and dear (and what are those issues)?

Anything you could think of would be fantastic to know. If you guys want to email me, it's at darth dot adams at gmail dot com (just change the "dot" to "." because spam is evil). If you just want to respond in comments, that's great too. Emailing me would allow some of you - if you chose - to reveal your identity. You don't have to reveal your identity, but an alias of some kind would be nice. I'd love whatever time anyone could give me - and would really appreciate it.

Thanks so much in advance. I hope I get lots of responses and will value each and every one of them. I'll also post my paper when it's done, since there'll be so much input from my readers. Thanks again,

Ryan