What professional sports can learn from the 2004 Democratic campaign.

There have been many stories about how the 2004 presidential race in the U.S. is the first to embrace technology and therefore redefine democracy. When I look at the technology used by the Dean and Clark campaigns, I start to think about how similar technology can be used in the world of sports: specifically soccer. Imagine fans of the L.A. Galaxy both in southern California and around the world. They need to be connected and grassroots, similar to political campaign. The key players can only make so many appearances, but a conference call on a Meetup date could involve fans while not stretching player resources. Each player could have a weblog, authored personally or by the team marketing department.

If the Oakland A’s, L.A. Galaxy, or San Jose Sharks were to go online with more fan involved software, what would you like to see? I may just start writing the code, and/or bind together existing components, to make it all work.