You are right about "volunteer" not being an accurate or adequate description for Joe Anythony's role in the Obama campaign over these last few years. IMO, "netizen" isn't really the right term for it either, since that has a more general meaning.

• "OPO" (Online Political Operative), from the Washington Post article, is close to his role, but already in use to refer to full-time paid campaign staff working in the online environment.
• "Non-paid OPO" implies that he cannot be paid for his services -- without people demonizing him and calling him defamatory names. So, that is not general enough.
• "Volunteer OPO" implies the same thing as "Non-paid OPO", in addition to implying that he was producing the same overall impact as a regular compaign volunteer -- which is nowhere close to accurate either.
• "Unofficial OPO" could work temporarily. But, what if he starts as "unofficial" and then gets signed up as "official"?
• "Independent OPO" could work. It is similar to an "independent consultant". However, in the political realm, "independent" already has a meaning of "not affiliated with a specific political party".

One problem with using "OPO" at all in a name to describe Joe Anthony's role, is that it does imply (as this article mentions) he is being controlled by, or directed by, the 'official' campaign -- which is not always the case for people in that position. This article's reference to him being closer to a "top political bundler or a well-connected local politician" is much more accurate.

Another difference between a regular "OPO" and Joe's role is that more-than-a-few of the people who signed on to his unofficial Obama site are fan's of Joe as well as Obama. Where a regular "OPO" or "political bundler" is, more or less, invisible to the people they funnel towards a candidate, Joe was not invisible. He was a leader in is own right, in his own realm. A popular, "well-connected local politician" is very close to what he was -- except the "locale" he was in, was a world-wide virtual locale, and Joe wasn't running for office himself.

Hmm. So, where does that leave us ... ?? Some of the words that DO seem to fit are ...

• online
• political
• leader
• community

How about ... ??

• OC = online community
• POC or POCo = political online community
• POCL or POCoL = political online community leader

"PAC" is already widely used in the political realm. Why not add "POC" or "POCo" as well?

Hmm. Not sure if those work or not, but at least they can be considered.

- PJ