ATLANTA — ATLANTA — Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, PC or Mac ... and now, MySpace or Facebook?

Both political parties are embracing computer-based social networking, with its vast potential as an organizational tool.

In September, the Democratic National Committee launched Party Builder, a site that lets Democrats meet each other, form groups of their own and plug into campaign efforts around the country.

The Democrats are playing catch-up with the Republicans, who already have Action Center and MyGOP, where users compete for iPods and other incentives to raise money and bring newcomers into the party. With the new Precinct Builder tool, users can find the 10 GOP volunteers nearest them on an interactive map and organize house parties and neighborhood walks.

Think of these as the blogs of the last election cycle on a power drink.

Want to fire off a letter to the editor? Plug in your ZIP code, and Party Builder will address an e-mail to the local paper and even give you hints on what to say. Just as easily, you can set up a neighborhood fund-raiser or start an argument over your party's platform.

Or, think of them as the two parties' take on social networking and user content sites like MySpace, Facebook and YouTube, which have proved wildly successful among the under-30 potential voters that Republicans and Democrats would like to reach.

Kevin Brabant, an Atlanta Democrat, is looking forward to using Party Builder not only as a way to learn about upcoming events without making a lot of phone calls but as a means for ruminating about the future of his party online with Democrats across the country.

"I can see myself using this as a kind of forum to determine which candidate to support in 2008," said Brabant, a computer specialist with an insurance company.

It's the power these sites give users to take control that gives them a revolutionary potential, said Carol Darr, director of the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet at George Washington University in Washington. This month, IPDI issued a book-length study, "People-to-People-to-People: Harnessing the Political Power of Social Networks and User-Generated Content."

"In the same way that political reporters have seen that with blogs they no longer control the news media, candidates are about to find out that they no longer control politics," Darr said.

That rings true with Don McDaniel, who has created a network of 600 Georgia Democrats through a site run by Democrats for America, a political action committee created by national Democratic Chairman Howard Dean.

McDaniel said party officials, accustomed to a more rigid system, often react with suspicion to groups that can be formed at the speed of the Internet, bringing together like-minded people who may not have known they lived in the same vicinity. The ability to put campaigns under the microscope is also going to cause some discomfort, he said.

"Candidates are really going to have to get back to listening to — and answering to — their constituents," McDaniel said.

There's ample evidence of that on the commercial sites that are the inspiration for Party Builder and MyGOP.

Video content sites have sparked a creative explosion of homemade political ads, and social networking sites that got their start as places for young people to find dates and exchange information on their favorite rock groups are becoming prime territory for political organization. As of last week, MySpace hosted 7,445 groups under its "Government & Politics" category. More unaffiliated but politically active sites have also come online, like Care2, which claims a membership of 6.3 million volunteers organizing around environmental and other issues.

Clint Murphy, a Savannah Realtor who stays connected with Republican Casey Cagle's campaign through its MySpace site, said politicians who don't begin to utilize political networks are "dead in the water."

"This is the new way of having a meeting. It's the way my generation communicates," said Murphy, 31. "It's very quick and to the point. The days of driving to the middle of the state and let's all get together and rah, rah, rah — I think that's over."

To move easily in these new political surroundings, the authors of one essay in the IPDI report urge candidates to "think like a rock band," employing the same techniques of "viral messaging" that some indie music groups have used to build their fan base outside normal record-promotion channels.

The two parties have approached networking in ways that reflect their ideology, the authors of On the Download, a National Journal column that tracks Internet politics, asserted recently. They note the Republican Party sites emphasize competition and incentives, while the new Democratic site "is all about building and communication within a community."

Site developers for both parties agreed with that characterization — to a point.

Josh McConaha, 24, Internet director for the Democratic National Committee, said the biggest difference is the freedom the Democratic site gives users to do their own thing.

"We're much more willing to trust our users," McConaha said of Party Builder. "Everything is basically user-driven."

Patrick Ruffini, 28, e-campaign director for the Republican National Committee, said that while the GOP uses incentives and competition, it is "marrying that model to the social model, where people can share their pictures and other things." It's an evolution that tracks with what voters are doing, he said.

"What we are seeing, broadly, is that people are putting more of their lives online," Ruffini said.

As they do, the parties and their politicians are figuring out ways to follow them.

There are pitfalls, however. Recently a Georgia Republican state legislator set up a MySpace account without filling in his profile. When Democrats called attention to the site, he discovered the site listed him —by default — as "single" and "doesn't want children" because he hadn't bothered to fill in his personal information.

The lawmaker, who is married and has two children, changed his profile immediately.

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By TOM BAXTER
Cox News Service

Tom Baxter writes for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Copyright ©2006 Cox Ohio Publishing, Dayton, Ohio, USA. All rights reserved.