Susan Mernit suggests some ways we could use Internet tools to make the 2004 election more accessible.

This is a good set of ideas, though I’m thinking we may be closer than Susan realizes. E.g. Technorati and Feedster can pull the major news together, with blog comments, quickly without working with major media - working with major media outlets might skew the intent of a system like Technorai, which gives weight to stories based on their emergence as items of interest within the blogosphere.

The MTV + Orkut + LiveJournal suggestion is pretty well served by the great Music for America:

…a partisan, political non-profit working to turn out our generation at the polls. By exposing the connection between our cultural lives and politics, we are getting our generation to participate in the political process on all levels - whether that means volunteering for a campaign, organizing a local MfA chapter, or just going to a show and having a conversation with some friends. By throwing some kick-ass parties and concerts all across the country we’re building a decentralized movement that encourages our friends to incorporate political participation into their daily lifestyle, and will ultimately bring about lasting, progressive change in this country.

Fox News or CNN working with local affiliates and blogging services seems unnecessary - we already have plenty of local bloggers without centralizing their efforts through large, inherently constraining news organizations. It would be great, though, to figure out a way to encourage people who focus primarily on traditional media channels to start blog-hopping for expanded perspective on news stories. It would also be good to know which bloggers are blogging from the scene of the national conventions. The DNC invited bloggers to attend with press credentials, for instance - it’d be great to have an aggregate list of those bloggers.

Open Source media archive with Creative Commons-licensed content is a great idea. The Internet Archive is one possibility, but why not add a category for “Political Reporting and Commentary” to the index of Creative Commons-licensed works at Common Content?

Other ideas? Comments welcome.