Heartwarming the Public Policy

Today brings news of technology that’s unexpectedly heartwarming.

David Pogue sings iChat video’s praises today following a heartwarming trans-Atlantic session with his family a couple of weeks ago when he was Lonely in London:

“There’s a lot of junk in technology, a lot of hassle and frustration, a lot of disappointment. But this moment was like a TV commercial. It was an emotional, powerful, simple, perfect example of how technology can change a moment, solve a problem, and despite the gulf of time and distance, bring you face to face with the people you love.”

And Doc published a photo gallery of an iSight tour of Dean HQ that Halley and I gave him yesterday. We just walked around the halls, introducing Doc to all the people we ran into. Doc calls it PiPhone – Picture-in-Picture Phone. One of the heartwarmers of the walk around was running into Campaign Manager Joe Trippi, who distributed copies of the Cluetrain Manifesto to the staff as a guide to the campaign’s manifesto destiny. Joe was genuinely delighted to “meet” Doc, who invited him out to the Bay area to keynote a conference. Joe’s amazing wife, Kathi Lash, the campaign’s designated sparkplug and Regional Field Desk, was right there with Joe, literally backing him up as usual.

Max Headroom Meets Kathi and Joe

And Samantha Shapiro published the New York Times Magazine article she started researching last September. It’s such an intimate look at the campaign staff that Zack and Clay felt exposed and, frankly, uncomfortable. but it’s a masterful story, full of humanity and the voice of authentic people doing important work based on heart and belief. Though there’s heartbreak in their story, it’s mostly heartwarming.

Heartcore Media

It’s an aspect of the campaign that we don’t associate with our preconceptions of hardcore power politics, where fat cats in smoke-filled rooms decide which of them will be offered to the public and how much money will be invested in their packaging and coronation.

There’s a different kind of power in politics now, unwelcome in Washington. Peer power is, literally, the power to peer into the hearts of real people taking unexpected actions for improbable candidates. These Internet media allow us to drill past dull or phony appearances into the heart of lightness. Blogs and comments and RSS feeds and video calls and all the rest give us X-Ray vision into the heart of what matters.

Plato would be delighted.

8:02:44 PM