Pete Ashdown and the open-sourced campaign Senators, Utah

Pete Ashdown has a great idea.  Ashdown, the internet executive who plans to take on Orrin Hatch next year, has introduced his own campaign wiki, giving anyone with an internet connection a chance to contribute to his effort, and creating what can be called "The first open-sourced campaign."

Ashdown explains the purpose of his wiki on the site, found here:

This is where you have the power to influence my Campaign for U.S. Senate. You can help work on policy, strategize in an open forum, or simply see what needs to be done. Don't be afraid to make a mistake, I'm covering new ground every day.

For the uninitiated, wikis are collaborative pages that allow anyone to not just add content, but also edit the entries of other users.  The most famous of a wiki is the encyclopedia Wikipedia, which, thanks to the combined knowledge and efforts of millions of people worldwide, has created over 831,000 articles on everything from Futurama to Chinese Art.  Ashdown's wiki functions in the same way, so that anyone with an idea can contribute.

I have a feeling that Ashdown's wiki will be especially popular within the blogosphere.  More importantly, if the idea proves to be successful, it could very well be the next step in internet-based campaigning.

Nathan Grossman | November 25, 2005 | Comment on This Post (31 so far) Permalink: Pete Ashdown and the open-sourced campaign Senators, Utah

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