Feedster power-users–can you help?
Gary Wolf needs help with a Wired story he’s writing about Howard Dean. Wolf lays out some hypothetical rules for the Dean campaign, and asks his blog readers to send him
… examples and counter-examples confirmation and correction. Are these really the principles that underlay the architecture of the campaign? Are there concrete examples you can suggest?
So how can Wolf find examples of first-hand reports from the Dean grassroots? Feedster, of course! Instead of asking the few hundred people who read his blog today, Wolf could be querying millions and millions of blog posts by thousands of bloggers.
This is where Feedster’s many power users come into the picture. Figuring out what to ask isn’t always simple.
The Rafester, the Scottster, and I were IMing about this.
I thought that “I met Dean” would find first-hand reports. That worked surprisingly badly–somebody dreamed about meeting actor Dean Cain, that’s the top result of 11. Hmmmm.
Then, remembering how I actually met Dean at a houseparty in somebody’s NH back yard, I tried “Howard Dean” + “back yard”. That turns up 10 posts, one of them mine. “Howard Dean” + “living room” turns up 21.
Feedster found people, not all of them fans of Dean, talking in blogs about their own experience.
If you can find better searches, and help Wolf illustrate other points about Dean’s grassroots outreach, please add your suggestion to his list of comments.
I do like Scott Johnson’s suggestion–do a Feedster search on Howard Dean changed my life.