yes, the first post was made just a few days after I signed up with blogger. I was motivated by the articles in The American Prospect and TNR about Dean, so I decided a blog would be the best way to track him. I invited the others to help me because I realized that I wasn't alone, I think Anna was the first one to join up and help contribute.
 

> -Was there a specific incident that prompted you to launch the site?

the articles on Dean in TNR and TAP, but I found those only after some frustration with the lack of any leadership by Gore in teh wake of what had been a full year of Bush's post-9-11 control of the givernment.
 

> -Have you done anything like this before, i.e. taken the initiative to launch some political effort?

 actually, no, this is my first time devoted to a specific candidate. However, I was very active during teh 2000 campaign in political discussions online, and I ended up "voteswapping" in order to support Gore. I voted for Nader in Texas and a Nader supporter voted for Gore in Oregon, and the coordination was handled by a voteswapping website. So I was definitely aware of the impact and innovation that the web could offer to politics at the grassroots (or netroots) level. And of course I have been blogging at my mainstream blog UNMEDIA (unmedia.blogspot.com) since March 2001, so I have been thinking along these lines. It seemed natural to start a DeanBlog because of these experiences.
 

> -Are there any interesting anecdotes in relation to your development of or running of the site?

Well, I do occassionally get strange emails, but nothing funny enough to relate :) We do get interesting spikes in traffic - for example, after Gore announced he wouldn't run, we had an order of magnitude increase in visitors, and after that our average was twice what it was before. Interestingly, almost 75% of our referrals are from Google searches.

Oh yes - early on, when there were few enough visitors that I could actually monitor who had visited, we had a few visits from computers in the senate.gov domain. I like to pretend that Kerry Edwards or Lieberman was checking us out early on to gauge the threat of Dean :)
 

> -How much time do you typically put into this? It looks to be a team effort--how do you divide the work? Have the four of you ever met?

 The four of us havent met, though I think Anna is also a Texan like me. I've given complete control to postto the others so that they can use their judgement over what material to put up - I dont want to try and act as an editor because I think that fact that all of us have different personalities really adds to the site. We all just post content when we get it, there isnt any real schedule, sometimes there will be a large number of posts in a few days and sometimes there will be nothing for a week.
 

> -What have you learned from putting up this site?

 that it really is true - a single person with an idea, enabled by clever technology and free flo wof information (without censorship), can really have a huge impact on the political system. This blog is the purest expression of the principles of free speech and democracy that I have ever been involved with.
 

> -Any more current observations on traffic than your graph from Dec.?

 yes, that an Instapundit link is king :) Glenn's link was by far the largest spike, beating the Gorespike by several hundred.

 Though to be honest, with increasing personal schedules and stress i havent had time to make many more site updates, but I did notice that as Edwards Kerry Lieberman etc all made their announcements, we did see incremental spikes (though nothing as big as Gore's announcement generated).
 

Jerome Armstrong also provided some brief responses:
>-Was there a specific incident that prompted you to launch the site?

I had the HD for President 2004 webpage up, and was thinking about a blog, so to were you Anna? And wala, the void was filled, via Aziz. We are slouching toward a new format/website.
 

> -Have you done anything like this before, i.e. taken the initiative to launch some political effort?

We are all bloggers on our own websites.
 

> -Are there any interesting anecdotes in relation to your development of or running of the site?

Dean likes the effort!
 

 > -How much time do you typically put into this? It looks to be a team effort--how do you divide the work? Have the four of you ever met?

Totally volunteer, whenever you feel like it. An entry takes a few minutes.
 

> -What have you learned from putting up this site?

The Dean campaign loves the energy.
 

> -Any more current observations on traffic than your graph from Dec.?

I think it's up to about 1,000 a day now?
 

Anna Brosovic wrapped up:
> -When did you put the site up? (It looks like Sept. 2002; is that correct?)

Yes, that's correct. Aziz began the blog and I stumbled upon it a few days later.
 

 > -Was there a specific incident that prompted you to launch the site?

Aziz has provided a pretty good answer, but I'd second Jerome and say that I was thinking of creating a Howard Dean blog around that time as well. I first heard about Howard in August of 2002 and was intrigued. In searching for more information, I stumbled upon the Dean blog. Aziz invited me and Jerome to participate when he realised we both had a vested interest in Dean as a candidate, and he invited us to participate so that we could expend our energy creating the best Dean site on the net.
 

> -Have you done anything like this before, i.e. taken the initiative to launch some political effort?

Oh yea. I've been involved in politics since the Clinton campaign back in 92. I've participated in get-out-the-vote efforts, I've worked polls on election day, and I've spent time promoting the candidates I believe in. With the advent of the blog, it's become a lot easier to interact with other supporters and get the word out about my favored candidates.
 

> -Are there any interesting anecdotes in relation to your development of or running of the site?

Yes! I got to speak with Howard over the phone at a Dallas area fundraiser. When I introduced myself and mentioned the site, he asked "Are you the folks who keep sending people to out site to make donations?" When I answered yes he said, "I love you guys! You're great!" Howard seems to be very grateful and appreciative of what we're doing.
 

> -How much time do you typically put into this? It looks to be a team effort--how do you divide the work? Have the four of you ever met?

I check the site each day and try to actively engage people in the comments section. I think I post fewer articles than the guys do (boy they are quick in the morning!), but I try to post something original at least once or twice per week. By actively participating in the discussion via the comments, I think I get people more involved. I've gotten lots of emails from people who chatted with me on the website. They ask me how they can help, how to donate, etc, and I try to be a good ambassador for the campaign via contact with other grassroots supporters.
 

> -What have you learned from putting up this site?

I've learned that the internet is a very powerful tool for political activism. I'm amazed at how many people we've turned on to the Dean campaign.