Lowell over at Raising Kaine grades the RPV and DPVA websites and the RPV site emerges a clear winner:

Effectiveness/Overall Rating
RPV Site: A-
Overall, seems very effective for what it sets out to do. Impressive, and I do not relish saying this, given that I am a passionate progressive who bleeds Democratic blue.

DPV Site: D
Look, anybody can build the tools to put together a website anytime they want. All you have to do is spend a few bucks, hire a consultant, etc. That’s NOT what makes a site effective, not at all. Instead, it’s all about how a website is used, populated (with information, dynamic content, data), updated, supported, and integrated with the netroots. Unfortunately, in the case of the DPV website, there’s not much in any of those areas, meaning that the site as a whole is operating far, FAR below its potential. Does anyone at the DPV realize this? If so, what are they going to do about it?

Part of this comes from the RPV’s hiring of Shaun Kenney as Communication Director and his applying his experience and knowledge of blogging (he learned it from me) to the RPV website. Another comes from Democratic leadership’s resistance to netroots activism at the top. This is a trend that also exists among many Republican leaders. Netroots is still in its adolescence and the parties are trying to figure out how to respond. Democrats seem to get netroots more than Republicans in their ability to mobilize and develop sites like Raising Kaine or ActBlue and DailyKos. And while Virginia Republican bloggers can hold their own for the most part, nationally the Republican netroots movement is still lagging to that of the Dems.

But it’s easy to keep the top happy when you give them what they want: grassroots activism and victories. But what does that get the netroots in return? Dems seem to be less rewarded for their netroots activism that Republicans are. Is this because Republicans value the few solid bloggers they see nationally or do they simply see netroots as an extension of regular grassroots activism while Democratic leadership sees netroots as a unique phenomenon?

The other issue one has to look at with these sites is what they’re trying to do. Are they trying to create interactive content and debate on their messages or are they trying to control the conversation? Blogging and Web 2.0 in general is about conversations and public participation in a process. The RPV site embraces this and welcomes comments even from anonymous commenters. The DPVA site, on the other hand, delivers a tightly controlled message that doesn’t open themselves up to dissenting opinion even among their own members. Alternatively, it also limits cheerleading.

This applies not just to comments but to also who the sites link to. The RPV website links to many Republican blogs in Virginia, offering ways to find more information about not just the party but its members and activists. This opens up a potential Pandora’s Box of information that the RPV can not even hope to control, even offering avenues out of the blogosphere echo chamber. By not linking to blogs or even recognizing the more interactive elements of the web, the DPVA website creates an isolated experience of informing the public. Again, it allows them maximum control over the message without fear of people getting off the path they lay out, but it hurts their ability to rally the netroots and truly engage these activists.

Ultimately, Lowell’s post reads like someone who wants a job, not just to be recognized for their work but because they truly feel that their work is how to best utilize the web and netroots activism. I agree. The RPV has embraced this idea and Shaun has gone a long way to making not just the RPV website but the organization as a whole more engaging of the blogosphere and netroots activists in the Commonwealth. If the Democrats hope to compete in Virginia, they need to evolve into something that makes them more participatory, more democratic in their message and conversations, and more engaging of the public they hope to motivate and mobilize.

I decided to be a history major for many reasons.

Waiting to the last minute to finish up a paper, thus having to stay up all night, was not one of them.