Historian Arnold Toynbee theorized that civilizations gained the brio to flourish in the face of a "challenge-and-response" scenario: a military defeat, an inhospitable climate, or some other hindrance, was requisite to call forth the creative energy that would build an empire.

There's a lesson there for progressive advocates rolling out of bed this morning with an extra spring in their step ... and for conservatives who'd just as soon pull up the sheets.

Progressive online organizing has blossomed during the opposition's governance, and it's survived the post-2006 Democratic majority in Congress -- for understandable reasons. But one onion-layer behind the netroots in the Internet organizing history are Matt Drudge and Free Republic: online spaces that grew huge in the late 90's against the challenge-and-response scenario posed by the Clinton administration. Nowhere is it written that liberals must dominate cyberspace.

I had the opportunity to "sit down with" -- read: e-mail -- Jim Gilliam of Brave New Films about the Fox Attacks campaign to hit the "news" channel where its advertisers are.

The campaign has taken blogistan by storm, which Brave New Films seems to have down to a science. So what's the magic behind the curtain?

Read on ...

Congratulations to one of the earlier DIA users, Free Schuylkill River Park for doing just what their name avowed.

Every action by the group was meticulously explained on its site (www.freetheriverpark.org), and "action alerts" were sent to its growing list of subscribers any time the group needed lobbying of City Council, CSX or the company's own customers to get behind pro-access initiatives.

The response was so instant, the rebuttals so relentless, CSX just couldn't stay nimble.

Very nice piece in the New York Times today on Step It Up 2007's National Day of Climate Action Apr. 14 and the general attempt to get lawmakers to take climate change seriously.

Step It Up is currently the gargantuan Distributed Event in the DIA universe, closing in on 1,000 separate local actions a month out from the action. (There's a short description of what the Meetup-like tool does on this page.)

And the seamless blending of online components with in-the-flesh activities testifies to the capacity for creative activism to inspire passion and get big in a hurry:

Copied verbatim from a message NTEN E.D. Katrin Verclas posted to a listserv, and which has as I've been typing this become a blog entry of its own ... a very short-notice opportunity to share your online success story with the world.

I am seeking some very good stories from YOU for a piece on ABC News/vcast that will feature "technology for good' or how nonprofits are using tech to make the world a better place. Here is what I am looking for:

Nonprofits are getting more and more savvy in using tech - and deploying techies who are doing good in the world. In April, more than 1,000 of these "Techies for Good" are coming to Washington DC.

The sequel to Day One of these notes from the New Organizing Institute, with Day Two spent ill abed.

Greg Green, Blue State Digital

Difference between CRM & CMS

Use CRM to track and contact campaign's supporter

Use CMS to edit web site w/o a lot of updating

Handy for
1. when there are a lot of people on the campaign updating things
2. when there are people in different locations who all need to access/update data
3. essential if there's a pretty large database of people you're contacting regularly and trying to track (e.g., you want to make sure you don't ask for money the day after they gave...)

They're not pretty, but they're breathy with the immediacy of being there -- the New Organizing Institute training, to be exact.

Oh, and Item! What prominent e-politics blogger actually takes his notes longhand? We won't tell, but he's ... ah, the devil, it's Colin at e.politics.

The completeness, precision and comprehensibility of these notes are not warrantied.

Morning session: Madeleine Stanionis, "Raising $$$ and Activating Supporters with Email"

Computer being obnoxious so parentheticals following are ex post facto recollections of an excellent presentation.

Video from the Center for American Progress' packed-house panel retrospective on "Online Strategies in the 2006 Election" is now available on the Center's site.

Need a teaser? Colin Delany has a wrap from the session on the nascence of the Macaca video.