[Campaigns-l] Great, here are some ideas...

[Steven Clift]

From:           	"Stephen Abbott" <nhprman at comcast.net>

> The idea is catching on...
> 
> Political Strategists to Launch Web Site
> Jul 11 7:42 PM US/Eastern
> 

These ideas have been around a long time.  The first web site in this 
space with a civic mission dates back to 1994:

http://www.e-democracy.org/1994/

In 1999 the ".com" boom swept up a number of folks with the notion 
that they could make money on essentially a civic mission.  Someone 
from Voter.com once said to me, "stock options Steve, stock options." 
To which I replied, "I can help you lose less money."

By 2000, sites like SpeakOut.com, Voter.com and later Policy.com and 
Politics.com fizzled as economic models.  Grassroots.com shifted 
gears and pass the once .org DNet to the League of Women Voters who 
then partnered last cycle with one of the few commercial survivors  
Capitol Advantage which runs Congress.org (they used to make print 
political directories for lobbyists/etc. pre-Internet days and it 
looks like DNet is now gone.)  In the end, the incumbent media brands 
won the day in terms of provision and access to _value-added_ 
election information.

More from 2000:

http://www.mail-archive.com/do-wire@tc.umn.edu/msg00105.html


With HotSoup.com they claim they will be "the first platform 
dedicated to bringing together these influential
audiences." (Opinion Drivers) If they succeed, yes at a _national_ 
level, but we've been doing this and something more inclusive in 
Minnesota since 1994 and locally since 1998 with our forums.  In fact 
our lesson is that local efforts have the most potential as national 
partisanship struck deeper into Minnesota's state politics.  The 
HotSoup model seems to suggest a more elite approach as connect 
celebrity opinion drivers with what others call influentials.*

While I am supportive of any effort (particularly those with real 
everyday citizens as volunteers) which give citizens better access to 
information and community that helps them engage in elections and 
politics, if it has to generate a profit to survive as a business ... 
good luck. 

Steven Clift
http://publicus.net

* See some interesting reports from the Institute for Politics 
Democracy, and the Internet:

http://www.ipdi.org/publications/


Putting Online Influentials to Work for Your Campaign
July 2004: Putting Online Influentials to Work for Your Campaign 
describes the techniques that the Bush campaign and others have 
adopted to take advantage of the unique characteristics of online 
political Influentials--their persuasive ability, their political 
activism and their large social networks.

Political Influentials Online in the 2004 Presidential Campaign
February 2004: A new community of citizens defined the 2004 
presidential campaign. These citizens are Internet-oriented, 
politically energized, and they support their candidates by visiting 
their websites, joining Internet discussion groups, reading political 
Web logs and making political contributions over the Internet. Even 
before the first primary, they played a pivotal role in the campaign, 
and they may be harbingers of permanent change in American politics.

Pioneers in Online Politics: Nonpartisan Political Web Sites in the 
2000 Campaign

August 2004: During the 2000 election, political information Web 
sites such as Voter.com, Freedom Channel and DebateAmerica were 
heralded as the new way to engage Americans in politics. Then the dot-
com crash occurred, and many of them closed their cyber-doors 
permanently. What happened? Pioneers in Online Politics looks at the 
collapse of online politics after the 2000 election and suggests a 
new roadmap for providers of political information online.

	
Nonpartisan Poltical Web Sites: Best Practices Primer
August 2004: Nonpartisan political Web sites have a mixed track 
record. Many of the innovations launched during the 2000 election 
have since disappeared. However, the online political community is 
enormous and growing, creating great opportunities for effective 
nonpartisan political Web sites during the 2004 election and beyond. 
This primer puts forth a series of recommendations and best practices 
designed to revive political information Web sites now and in the 
future.
	


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