[via Boing Boing] I still don't have an opinion about Howard Dean as a presidential candidate, but I like the way that his campaign is reaching down to the grassroots. I also like the idea of the DeanSpace project. I don't know if the software is any good or not. In way, that's not the point. The politcal process seems very wasteful, in the following sense: During the buildup to the presidential election, there's a lot of effort that goes in, but at the end there's a single winner. That's all that's left of all of the massive efforts. What I like about DeanSpace is that something will be left behind. If DeanSpace, the software, works, some other candidate might be able to pick it up and use it. I like the fact that they open sourced this -- this is definitely the kind of software that should be free. But it's more than just the software, because DeanSpace is "social software", so there's a chance that the social network formed by DeanSpace might persist after the election in a way that hasn't previously happened. It seems to me like there'd be something left that could be built upon. It's going to be interesting to watch what happens with this.