I am a member of MoveOn and its younger siblings Avaaz (global "MoveOn") and Step it Up ("MoveOn" against global warming) and I think they are all great. I can sign a petition or donate to run a political ad or even call my Congressman, and I've done all three actions for these organizations.

Still, I don't think this hub-and-spokes model of political activism shows the full political potential of the net. The promise of Web 2.0 is that we can all be content creators yet, for all its success in involving citizens in politics, MoveOn and its siblings are top-down organizations that direct citizens to take actions which are decided by the internal MoveOn (or Avaaz or Step it Up) team. These organizations are Web 1.0. Directives come from the hub, with occastional input from the spokes (members) via polls and surveys. Actions are not developed by members.

I am not saying that there isn't a place for this centralized form of online activism. I really appreciate what MoveOn is doing to end the Iraq war, what Avaaz is doing currently to force the resignation of World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, and what Step it Up is doing to stop global warming. What I am saying is that the political promise of Web 2.0 has not yet been fulfilled.

So what will Web 2.0 political activism look like? For one, I'd love to see online social networks like Orkut, MySpace, Facebook, and community blog platforms like Bligoo, become spaces for political organizing. In September, hundreds of thousands of Facebook members used the Facebook site's networking tools to encourage their friends to sign an online petition blocking a new "stalker-esque" news feed feature on Facebook. Why can't this organizing power be used to push for real poltical change on the other side of the screen?

Also, I'd like to see more blogs-to-promote-a-cause, like this Chilean blog created to raise awareness of the inappropriate instituationalization of a local homeless man. Blogs are free DIY websites that create an instant platform for any issue. Their applications for activism have not yet been fully utilized.

Finally, I'd like to see some new Web 2.0 tools that allow activists to better organize and express themselves on the web. Blogs are great if you want to make dated entries to your website, but what if you want to keep certain information on the homepage longterm rather than pushing into the archives as new material arrives? We still need DIY tools that make websites of different kinds (for spreading information about a cause, raising money, posting photos) as easy as setting up a blog.

I salute the great political organizations of Web 1.0, but let's keep moving forward. The promise of political Web 2.0 is political content and action organized by citizens, not organizations.