The OnLine State

With Michael Steele’s inaugural blog post fresh in our minds, we here at the Maryland Democratic Party thought we would start a little blog of our own. We’re not promising the world to our readers, but we will do our best to participate in the online political conversation, have a little fun and remain as authentic as possible. In fact, the RNC site launch taught us a pretty valuable lesson on authenticity.

I can’t blame them for editing or updating their website, as any good website should be dynamic, especially a “beta” site.  In fact, I’m sure this blog will change a bit in appearance as we move forward. However, Steele’s blog post, originally titled, “What up?” was quickly switched to “Change the Game” after it was mocked online.  Had the RNC stuck to their original blog name, they might have actually gained more credibility. Besides, I’m not exactly sure that title “Change the Game” was the game changer the RNC was looking for.

We should, however, give credit where credit is due. Aesthetically, the website has a good design. I’d also have to agree with everything Steele says in the first paragraph. The web is pretty amazing in its ability to inform people in ways that we never thought possible. Moreover, the social web has certainly transformed the way we connect and stay in touch with our social networks, which – by the way – have existed well before the emergence of social networking sites. That’s why the Maryland Democratic Party has made it a priority to connect with Maryland Democrats online.

In addition to connecting via personal social networking sites, professional networking sites, photo sharing sites, video sharing sites and other conversation channels, we want to blog about what the Maryland Democratic Party is doing to help elect Democrats to public office in Maryland. We want to leverage the power of the web to fight back the inevitable attacks and the misleading arguments that have distracted voters in the past.

However, we understand that on the social web, blogs and social media are about a conversation. To that end, we want to create a space for Democrats to blog and comment, knowing that there will always be trolls who lurk online and that some Democrats may not agree with everything we say or do. Nevertheless, we hope that “The Online State” serves as a place for Maryland Democrats to participate in the online conversation.