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<p>…and here is the verdict of the Swedish Pirate Party by end of
December 2008:</p>
<p>We had a successful “Join the Pirate Party day” on December 8 where
exactly 600 new recruits joined up, that reverbed far into oldmedia
(one of the largest dailies had as their top story that PP is gaining
ground). Apart from that, our oldmedia presence is still barely
noticeable, whereas we dominate the blogosphere (see graphics further
down). We are now approaching our member count highscore achieved
around last election day.</p>
<p>Total new members in December: <strong>1,933</strong>.</p>
<p>In the days before Christmas, we published a poll that hit Digg’s
24h-top page: 21% of the voter base would consider voting for the
Pirate Party in the upcoming European Parliament elections. In the
below-30-years-of-age segment, more see the Pirate Party as a viable
alternative (46%) than not (43%). In particular, men below 30 approve
(55%).</p>
<p>The party income keeps increasing. I posted <a
href="http://english.rickfalkvinge.se/2008/12/29/an-unusual-request/">an
appeal</a> for
crowdfunding my personal food and rent on December 29 under pretty much
emergency wallet-on-vapor conditions, and had a large response both in
funding of my food and rent and in increases for donations to the party
(though exact numbers won’t be known until tomorrow).</p>
<p>Today, January 1, 2009, the FRA ubiquitous wiretapping law went into
effect. Bloggers are celebrating “happy new 1984″.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-263"
src="cid:part1.07090703.06080403@piratpartiet.se" alt=""></p>
<h3>Graphics</h3>
<p><img src="cid:part2.08050002.00000306@piratpartiet.se" alt=""
height="350" width="600"></p>
<p>We continue to gain influence in the blogosphere. This chart depicts
the top 50 Swedish blogs (all blogs), weighted mathematically by
ranking (#1 = 50 points, #2 = 49 points, …#50 = 1 point). We are
larger than any other party, and about the same size as both the
liberal and socialist blog blocks.</p>
<p><img src="cid:part3.00050401.00050001@piratpartiet.se" alt=""
height="350" width="600"></p>
<p>This is reflected in the fact that blog mentions of our party name
has gone up sharply from November to December.</p>
<p><img src="cid:part4.01000401.09070203@piratpartiet.se" alt=""
height="350" width="600"></p>
<p>However, oldmedia more or less continue to view us as a curiosity.
While we’re seeing signs we didn’t see before — reporters call us and
ask to be put on our press release mailing list; things we write on our
blogs become national news in next day’s papers — we’re far from being
as dominant in oldmedia as we are on blogs.</p>
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