A while ago, I saw a 
great manifesto about Dean's use of the internet, but evidently didn't comment about it in my blog, because when I went back to look for it, I couldn't find it. So there.
I was looking for it because the union I belong to is looking at creating a more decentralized structure for mobilizing action. I'm really excited about contributing because I've always been an advocate for unions -- ever since my family used to play Union Songs when I was a kid. Unions always have flaws, but it's clear that the kind of system you get without them is much worse. It's been very disappointing to me to have unions be so downtrodden these days. For example, our union, the Massachusetts Society of Professors is prevented, by law, from taking most kinds of actions. Just recently -- three years after it was supposed to take effect -- our legislature and Governor have funded our contracts. (Although, the Governor has threatened the University that it won't continue to provide funding for the contract.) If the state wasn't paying its gas bill or water bill, I suspect those companies would be able to shut off the line. But our union can't. We just have to take it. Or get out. And a lot of people have.
We're hoping to set up something that makes it easier for people to become informed and self-organize themselves into groups to take action. It could be a great thing! It's exciting to be a part of it.
Following various links, I found a reference to Amy Bruckman and thence to her research projects. I need to track down some of her papers. It looks like interesting stuff about creating learning communities using on-line resources. She seems to like Mooses. She's called several of her projects Moose something: MacMoose, Moose Crossing, AquaMoose3D, etc. I wonder if she had the old Macintosh "Talking Moose"? Now that was a lot of fun.