What is new for me, looking at Myspace's role in political organizing, is how Internet software that has been designed primarily for getting fun information about other people (pictures, interests, etc.) for social and dating purposes seems to have potential for sparking political involvement across distances, in a way that both text-based Internet and mass media are less suited to. We know from studies of political attitudes and behavior that personal contacts are very important motivators for altering both. Gustavo, the high school student whose interview I posted, describes the Myspace slideshow of a march in california as "the main thing that got my attention" and spurred him to organize where he lived in texas. Without inferring too much about what he was initially looking for on Myspace that morning, I can certainly imagine how someone might feel motivated to become an organizer after seeing pictures of peers elsewhere marching for a cause one shares an interest in. In earlier times, a cute and funny campus organizer might come to your dorm room and casually tell you about a rally, or a cool and slightly older kid down the street might be a member of an activist group and get you interested in it. These people still exist, of course, but now they can be thousands of miles away with profiles you are checking out anonymously on Myspace. That seems a lot more compelling at the pre-commitment stage than watching a news report about a march, or getting an email message from someone you don't know and can't see. Then, once you've decided to organize, you contact your friends and schoolmates using phone trees, email, flyers etc., because those are more effective media for targeted communication within one's preexisting network. Myspace seems more suited to the initial stage of political involvement, providing the spark of interest that comes, for example, from curiosity about another person and what they are doing, and a desire to compare it to what *you* are doing -- sitting in your room looking at Myspace profiles, perhaps, while others just like you are marching for your rights. A tool for doing that across distances, available to and used by most young people, was missing in earlier eras. It will be interesting to see how much difference it makes. Todd Todd Davies *** email: davies@csli.stanford.edu Symbolic Systems Program *** phone: 1-650-723-4091 Stanford University *** fax: 1-650-723-5666 Stanford, CA, USA 94305-2150 *** web: www.stanford.edu/~davies