The Player Roster 2
By Baselinemag | Posted 2003-09-09

Joe Trippi didn't have a grand plan for using communications by computer to kick-start support for Dean. It just worked out that way.
Joe Trippi
Campaign Manager
Running the Campaign
A veteran Democratic operative, he also spent time working with a company that
customizes the Linux operating system. Trippi brought some of the open-source
spirit to the campaign. His strategy of giving away power to volunteers over
the Internet was based on both that philosophy and the necessity of getting
the Dean campaign off the ground with limited resources.
Howard Dean
Presidential Candidate
The former Vermont governor went quickly from wondering what a blog is to wondering
why the campaign didn't have one. While Dean is not much of a blogger himselftop
staffers chronicle the candidate's activities on the Dean Web journalhe
has set records for online fundraising and is leading the pack of Democratic
hopefuls.
Zephyr Teachout
Director of Internet
Organizing and Outreach
A lawyer in black high-top sneakers, Teachout went from defending death- penalty
cases to commissioning open-source development projects.
Mathew Gross
Blogger
The former indie-rock drummer and environmental activist traveled uninvited
from Utah to Dean headquarters in Vermont and became the head writer of Dean's
groundbreaking blog.
Nicco Mele
Webmaster
Mele joined the campaign in March, after attending a Dean Meetup. The campaign
novice maintains a homepage and blog that redefine candidate sites away from
static position papers toward hubs of communities.
Dick Rowe
De facto Chief Information Officer
The former chief executive at library-services firm RoweCom and a Harvard-faculty
clinical psychologist, Rowe joined the campaign in May at a salary of $1.
Joe Rospars
Blogger
Rospars was teaching English in Sweden when he found the Dean campaign on the
Web. Now the 22-year-old is a major contributor to the Dean blog,
Michael Silberman
Meetup Coordinator
Less than a year out of college, Silberman is responsible for one of the organizational
instruments most critical to Dean's success: Meetup, the social- networking
tool.
David Weinberger, Ph.D.
Consultant
A co-author of "The Cluetrain Manifesto" and author of "Small Pieces Loosely
Joined," two seminal books on understanding the role of the Internet in connecting
individuals, Weinberger helped inject the markets-are-conversations meme into
the campaign.
Zack Rosen
Volunteer-turned-staffer
While studying computer science at the University of Illinois, Rosen developed
the original model for DeanSpace, a simple tool that allows supporters on the
Web to cross-link their sites.
Running With the Campaign
Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins
Volunteer
A Dean supporter from Sitka, Alaska, Kreiss-Tomkins has signed up almost
500 supporters for the campaign using the DeanLink networking application.
Scott Heiferman, Peter Kamali and Matt Meeker
Cofounders, Meetup
The social-software company started by these young entrepreneurs brought supporters
to the campaign even before the campaign adopted it. It's now used by almost
every White House hopeful.