The topic of community organising has risen more into prominence through the US presidential election cycle. Perhaps due to Obama’s past experience as an organiser, perhaps because Palin mocked that experience, or perhaps because of the role it plays in Obama’s campaign. At any rate, there has been some interesting writings around the intertubes on this topic. Those that I can remember/find are:

Al Giordano’s The Field – Lots of emphasis on the power/nature of community organising, including reports from ‘on the ground’. Not to mention fascinating general discussion on the election. Should continue to be interesting post-election as Al turns his focus to ‘organising the president’.

FiveThirtyEight – In addition to the awesome number crunching and insight provided by Nate Silver. This site also has been featuring a fascinating ‘On The Road’ series by Sean Quinn looking at the campaign organisations across the states. Also features some fantastic photos by Brett Marty. I am jealous of these guys!

Zack Exley at Huffington Post – A fascinating piece on ‘The New Organizers’, looking at the Obama campaign’s ground-game. This is only Part I, hopefully Part II materializes at some stage!

I wonder how these experiences could relate to Australia. There are many differences in the ‘way things work’ down here (for example, not having reverse phone number lookups) that make for a different environment in which to operate. Interesting stuff!