Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/198093
ALBERTO RUGGIERI | SIS | GETTY IMAGES Blogging.2:3 8/21/08 11:18 PM Page 19 we wanted this event to be big. We knew lots of people in the Bay Area cared about this issue and would love to attend, but how do we reach them? So we turned to the blogs, and to one blogger in particular. Eve Gittelson, who blogs under the name "nyceve," is an online dynamo on healthcare issues. Eve is not a nurse, but just an ordinary person with a belief that all Americans can and should enjoy real health security. She's become a great friend to CNA/NNOC and her passionate writing has earned her a considerable following online. Anything she writes gets read by a lot of people. We asked her to help us publicize the event. She began posting about it online in the middle of April. A few times she wrote posts just about the event; more often she would just put a sentence or two at the end of a longer entry reminding people about it. Over time, she helped build excitement and drew in more people and more groups. And in the parlance of the Internet world, the whole thing "went viral" as people from other sites read her posts and began spreading the word on their own sites. When the day came, hundreds of CNA/NNOC nurses and our allied groups attended, but just as many people who belonged to no group at all—individual citizens who were there because they had J U LY | A U G U S T 2 0 0 8 heard about it online—showed up. Through the reach of the Internet, at very little cost of time and money, we were able to substantially increase the size of our demonstration. It's a perfect example of the way that online organizing and traditional organizing can work together to multiply our efforts and our power. As I said before, I'm not an "early adopter" type. So how did I start blogging at age 55? I began by joining one of the biggest and most popular political sites, DailyKos. Some of the first entries I wrote were about CNA/NNOC's efforts to pass clean money campaign reform in 2006. Lately, I write mostly about the fight for real healthcare reform, such as why incremental reform that continues to rely on private insurance companies won't work. A lot of the time I simply give my take on some interesting news article or report I read that I'd like to share with others. By putting my ideas online, I not only give them wider exposure, but sharpen my ability to defend them. I've even become friends with some of the people who share common interests on the blogs. I'm now a regular reader and fairly regular contributor on several blogs. I teach others the basics of blogging and help to draw them in to support our work. It's easy and fun, and you can do it too. W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G REGISTERED NURSE 19