Coordination
This infrastructure function working group addresses ways in which progressives can better coordinate communications between individuals and between distribution channels. Coordinated communications have a strong effect in setting a political agenda, as they increase the chance that any single individual will encounter an idea at least once and that a substantial portion of the population will encounter the idea multiple times, which reinforces the perception that the idea is "conventional wisdom." Strategic coordination of long-term idea-marketing campaigns with shorter-term communication efforts can powerfully advance overarching goals while simultaneously providing immediate successes, as demonstrated by the conservative political movement and by innumerable commercial marketing programs. New programs, alliances, and even new organizations may be needed to fulfill the overall function of coordinating progressive communications.
Members of the Coordination working group exchange ideas and information about:
- Existing models or templates for coordination among progressive groups-how was coordination achieved, under what circumstances and with what results; strengths and weaknesses of these models and applicability to other situations
- Cross-platform coordination (e.g., between digital, print, and broadcast media, or between audiovisual and grassroots action)
- How to increase coordination, deal with conflicts and different approaches, and facilitate change when needed
- The desirable and undesirable aspects of coordinated communications, from the standpoints of effectiveness, achievability, and desirability
- Incentives and disincentives for coordination from the standpoint of the individual participants
- Message coordination challenges
- Filtering or sorting-how new ideas enter the public discourse and how the
best ones from a progressive perspective might be identified, selected, and
promoted
- Considerations in coordinating communications between different types of organizations (501c3, 501c4, 527, PAC, for-profit, individuals, political entities)
During the March 2006 Progressive Roundtable convening, if Coordination is
your primary function area, you will have the opportunity to work with other
members of your group on specific plans for developing new ways of achieving
coordination within the progressive movement.
To get started, please contribute to the active forum topics for the Coordination working group, and visit the following coordination-related sections of our Resource Library:
The lack of a coordinated communication network is a great liability to progressives when it comes to acting in concert to influence public opinion and public policy, and maximizing the gains of grassroots organizing and electoral campaigns. This LOI proposes to map progressive organizations and networks, and to use this data to create a web-based database listing communication vehicles, organizations, and networks willing and able to coordinate message distribution. Specifically, the LOI proposes:
- compiling existing aggregated data on progressive organizations and networks and undertaking asset mapping research;
- developing an interactive online database listing communication vehicles, organizations, and networks willing and able to coordinate message distribution;
- creating a database demonstration tool, conducting heavy outreach to progressive media, organizations and consultants, and coordinating five convenings to gather progressives regionally for demo launches; and
- turning the database over to an existing organization, to be maintained by its staff.
Contact:
A stronger and better connected infrastructure will enable progressives to communicate their ideas and values more effectively to a variety of audiences, to collaborate more effectively, and to move the political agenda to be more receptive to progressive candidates and programs. In collaboration with renowned network analyst Valdis Krebs, the Commonweal Institute proposes to increase substantially the connected capacity of the progressive movement by mapping and analyzing the social and organizational networks that presently exist among progressive infrastructure organizations and individuals, then intervening in specific ways to strengthen and “weave” those networks. These activities will include targeted networking events to increase connectivity, the creation of a public engagement networking site, the development of a messaging echo chamber via network connections, and education and promotion to encourage network involvement.
A vibrant network with diverse membership and a strategic plan for growing and formalizing their work and increasing their impact, the Progressive Communicators Network proposes to increase its capacity by hiring its first two regional organizing and program staff people in late 2006 or early 2007, with two more regional staff added each year through 2010. The Network will continue with its proven approach of national and regional work on:
- supporting networking between communicators;
- building skills of communicators, with a focus on framing and messaging; and
- fostering cooperation and collaboration and supporting the projects that spring from these collaborations.
The scale of the work, however, will change with increased financial resources to add people power and program resources.
