Schedule of Events

Day One: THURSDAY, MARCH 10

Level 1, Marvin Center, Betts Theatre

2:00pm OPENING REMARKS: Carol C. Darr - Director, Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet
2:15pm OPENING PLENARY
Reviewing Election 2004: The Good, the Bad and the Downright Nasty
Now that the election is over, Internet political moguls and the online teams from both Presidential
campaigns will engage in a no holds barred analysis, discussing how each of the major campaigns
utilized the Internet to garner support, the role of the Internet in empowering small donors and the use
and possible misuse of 527s in the 2004 election.
Mike Turk - eCampaign Director, Bush-Cheney '04
Josh Ross - Director, Internet Strategy, Kerry-Edwards 2004
Pam Fielding - President, e-advocates
Bradley Smith - Commissioner, Federal Election Commission
Heather Holdridge - Director of Online Organizing and Campaigns, CTSG
Vinay Bhagat - Founder, Chairman, and Chief Strategy Officer, Convio, Inc.
Phil Anderson - Managing Principal, Navigators
Michael Janofsky - Washington DC Bureau, New York Times (Moderator)
3:15pm BREAK
3:30pm OPENING PLENARY Cont.
4:30pm BREAK
4:45pm BREAKOUT SESSION 1
Room 301 Politics Online Goes Global: What’s Hot Across the Planet
Internet Politics isn’t just influential in America: it now has a global audience and
some International players who are harnessing the power of going online to deliver
their message. This panel will combine some of the most cutting edge overseas
protagonists as well as some home grown talent to discuss how Internet politics is
flourishing around the world, assisting worthy causes, as well as a selection of very
dubious organizations.
Francis Schiller - Owner/Publisher of politicswatch.com
Scott Heiferman - CEO, Meetup.com
Michael Colopy - Aristotle International
Phil Noble - President, PoliticsOnline (Moderator)

Room 302 All Politics Is Local: The Best of the State and Local Internet Campaigns in 2004
Far from dwelling in the shadows of the Presidential campaign Internet behemoths,
many state and local campaigns saw the huge potential of the Internet and created
some of the most innovative and groundbreaking Web strategies seen on the Web to
date. These campaigns represent the real future of Internet politics, moving far
beyond mere fundraising and targeted e-mail to create a seamless join of virtual and
the traditional campaigns.
Andy Golodny - Director Internet Operations, Tom Daschle for Senate
Ann Yoders - Founder & CEO, The Bronx Cash Register Consulting Co.
Dan Manatt - Principal, Manatt.net/Web Video for Politics
Phil Sheldon - Media Director, RightMarch.com (Moderator)
 Betts Theatre How to Start an Online Movement from Scratch
Got a burning idea or cause? Is there an issue, a ballot proposition or rebuttal
yearning to take root? Want to jump on the “527” bandwagon? The Internet
empowered numerous groups to enter the 2004 election debate, thereby trailblazing a
path for future political pundits and activists. Our panelists will explain exactly how
it was done, who did it best and how you can create the next Internet politics wave.
Steven Clift - Strategist, Publicus.Net
William Greene - Founder and Director, RightMarch.com
David Alpert - Co-Founder and Director, Cosmopolity
Christine Williams - Professor of Government, Bentley College (Moderator)
5:45pm BREAK
6:00pm NETWORKING COCKTAIL PARTY
It has been a long day, and you definitely deserve some relaxation time and a cool drink. Get to know
your fellow conference attendees and prepare for Day Two at our opening night cocktail party.

Day Two: FRIDAY, MARCH 11

Level 3, Marvin Center, Grand Ballroom

9:00am MORNING PLENARY

And Now For the Next Four Years: Shaping the Future of Internet Politics
Day 2 starts off answering possibly the most important question of the 2005 Politics Online
Conference: where do we go now? That’s why we have brought out the heavy artillery to debate,
discuss, muse, pontificate and generally help shape the future direction of Internet politics. Top
campaign representatives, e-governance specialists, online communication gurus and non-profit
leaders give us their insights and then chew over your questions and thoughts.
Audience participation is encouraged and highly sought after.
Joe Trippi - Former Campaign Manager, Dean For America
Ken Mehlman - Chairman, Republican National Committee
Ellen Malcolm - President, EMILY's List
Greg Spiridellis - Co-Founder, JibJab Media
Phil Noble - President, PoliticsOnline
Rick White - President and CEO, TechNet
Carol C. Darr - Director, Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet
10:30am BREAK
10:45am BREAKOUT SESSION 1
Room 307 Integrating the Flows: Combining Database and Internet Technology in the
Modern Campaign
Sponsored by: NGP Software and Liberty Concepts
Database and Internet technology is an integral part of modern campaigns. Our panel of
experts will discuss the latest techniques and tools for “Integrating the flows”. They will
show you how to integrate campaign data from supporter acquisition to voter management,
from micro-targeting to financial compliance, from online contributions and volunteer
signups to blast emails. If you want to make the most of your resources and information,
this panel should not be missed.
Jonathan Karush - President, Liberty Concepts LLC
Nathaniel Pearlman - Founder, NGP Software
(Refer to Update Sheet for Further Panelists)

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 Room 308 Getting the Message Out: Communicating Online for Non-Profits
and
Trade Associations
Sponsored by: US Chamber of Commerce
You may have the greatest issue or the most worthy cause, but if you
don’t know how to use the Web to communicate your message, you
may be the only one who knows about it. This panel of industry
specialists will share their experience and knowledge and teach you
state-of-the-art methods for communicating online.
Neil Hare - VP, Corporate Communications U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Michael Bassik - VP, Internet Advertising, Malchow, Schlackman,
Hoppey, & Cooper
Mindy Finn - eCampaign E-mail, Bush-Cheney '04
Mike Krempasky - RedState.org (Moderator)

Amphitheatre The Internet Cash-Cow: Fundraising Online

Sponsored by: Plus Three
Millions of dollars raised online; small donors making up the bulk of
election contributions; fundraising that is cost-efficient and virtually
immediate. No, it’s not a pipedream; it's political fact. Only the Internet
has been able to deliver where campaign finance reforms have failed:
the dilution of the power of big money and the rise of citizen
participation in the political process. These fundraising successes can
easily be transferred into the issue-advocacy and non-profit world, and
many more campaigns and initiatives can learn from newly developed
techniques and technologies.
Juan Proano - President and Co-Founder, Plus Three
Ari Rabin-Havt - Internet Communications Dir., Kerry-Edwards 2004
Chuck DeFeo - eCampaign Manager, Bush-Cheney '04 (Moderator)
(Refer to Update Sheet for Further Panelists)

Room 402 Tracking the Buzz Through Blogs

Blogs have empowered the online citizen and helped diffuse the
homogeneity of the traditional media. Consequently, they have caused
a dramatic shift in the make-up of the PR playing field. Its not a matter
of sending out press releases anymore. Smart PR execs and
organizations are now monitoring the bloggerati and joining the
discussion to hit key constituencies and influencers through the blogs.
Ken Deutsch - Principal, IDI
Patrick Ruffini - Webmaster, Bush-Cheney '04
Peter Daou - Online Communications Advisor, Kerry-Edwards 2004
Nicco Mele - CEO, EchoDitto (Moderator)
11:45am BREAK
12:00pm BREAKOUT SESSION 2
Room 307 Influentials, e-fluentials and Internet Elites
Sponsored by: Roper Public Affairs (A Part of NOP World)
The Influentials are the ones who tell everyone who to vote for, where
to eat and what to buy. They are overwhelmingly Internet savvy,
clearing the way for the masses to follow. Find out the top issues that
concern these Internet elites and discover how you can harness their
energy for your cause. New data you don’t want to miss!

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 Chuck DeFeo - eCampaign Manager, Bush-Cheney '04
Annie Webber - Senior VP, Roper Public Affairs and Media
Henry Copeland - Principal, Blogads
Grant Reeher - Associate Professor Political Science, Syracuse
University (Moderator)
Room 308 Online Advertising
Sponsored by: The New York Times, NYTimes.com
Candidates, political committees and ballot initiatives purchased $15.7
million in online political advertising in 2004. Find out what worked,
what didn’t and what to expect in 2006.
Mike Connors - Sales Manager, The New York Times
Morra Aarons - Frm Director, Internet Marketing, Democratic
National Committee
Jonah Seiger - Founder, Connections Media LLC
Karen Jagoda - President and Founder, E-Voter Institute (Moderator)

Amphitheatre United We Stand: Online Mobilization and Constituent

Relationship
Sponsored by: Care2
Mobilization underscored every successful grassroots campaign over
the last 12 months and will play a key role in grassroots efforts for the
foreseeable future. If you fail to understand its importance and power,
you do so at your peril. Online mobilization is cheap, local and quick.
Our panelists will discuss recent innovations and will also open up the
panel to insights from the entire audience about new ways to activate
your constituents.
Andrew Stocking - VP, Business Development, Care2.com
Robert Hahn - Executive Director, Free Republic Network
Jo Lee - Co-founder, CitizenSpeak
Melissa Boasberg - Deputy Dir., Internet Operations, Kerry-Edwards
2004 (Moderator)

Room 402 Innovations and Successes of Online Issue Advocacy

Sponsored by: @DVOCACY Inc
Issue advocacy groups are driving online political discussion, reaching
out via the Web to increase their exposure, drawing new supporters and
raising much needed cash. We will bring together some leaders in the
field of online issue advocacy to discuss their recent innovations and
gloat over their successes. This is your chance to discover their secrets
and take advantage of their combined experience.
Rob Stuart - Senior Vice President, Strategic Relations
Brian Michael - Account Representative, Mindshare
Doug Pinkham - President, Public Affairs Council (Moderator)
(Refer to Update Sheet for Further Panelists)

Level 3, Marvin Center, Grand Ballroom

1:00pm - 3:00pm

KEYNOTE LUNCHEON:
Perspectives on Internet Politics
(Premium and Speaker Ticket Holders Only)

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 SIMULCAST:

Amphitheatre will house the Blogger’s Den and

Live Video Broadcast of the Keynote Luncheon

(All Ticket Holders Welcome)

3:10pm BREAKOUT SESSION 3

Room 307 On the Frontier: New Faces, New Voices, New Visions
Sponsored by: EchoDitto
The best and the brightest of the new guard in Internet politics
assemble to discuss their vision for online politicking, how they
achieved their success and why it has to be “their way or the
information super highway.” Look out Internet “old timers”: these
young guns are firing and ready to take you down!
Justin Germany - Web Video, Bush-Cheney '04
Evan Coyne Maloney - Editor, Brain-Terminal.com & Documentary
Filmmaker
Zach Rosen - Founder and Director, CivicSpace Labs
Michael Silberman - Vice President of Online Organizing, EchoDitto
Brian Reich - Strategic Consultant, Mindshare (Moderator)

Room 308 What Savvy Corporate Types Can Teach Politicos about the
Internet
Sponsored by: ElectionMall.com
Psst!! Online commercial players are 2-5 years ahead of their political
contemporaries. If you want to know what lies just over your horizon,
take a look at what they’re doing today.
Ravi Singh - CEO ElectionMall Technologies, Inc.
David Wickenden - Senior Vice President And Senior Partner,
Fleishman-Hillard
Julie Barko - Deputy Dir., Institute for Politics, Democracy & the
Internet (Moderator)
(Refer to Update Sheet for Further Panelists)

Amphitheatre Lobbying Online: Keys to Reaching Hill Staff Through the Web
Sponsored by: Cambridge Strategic Partners
As security procedures have rendered snail-mail letters to the Hill
increasingly problematic, online communications have become a
crucial component of lobbying strategies. Led by Internet lobbying
specialists, this panel will explain how to avoid getting caught up in
spam filters and explore online techniques and tools for influencing
policy makers, especially the next generation of Hill staffers. The
panel will also explore the value of Internet based lobbying compared
with more traditional lobbying methods and will demonstrate why
more activists and organizations are moving Online to lobby.
Brad Fitch - Congressional Management Foundation
Joy Howell - Cambridge Strategic Partners
Alex Treadway - Senior Associate Dir, Corporate & Advocacy
Advertising,
NationalJournal.com
Larry Purpuro - Rightclick Strategies (Moderator)

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 Room 402 Social Software: Creating an Online Community
They say “the good things in life are free” and they weren’t kidding.
From ‘meetup’ to ‘friendster’ to organizing parties with ‘Evite’: social
software allows you to build your own online community and join with
other likeminded souls. Discover how your organization can utilize
social software innovations.
Cheryl Contee - Senior Consultant, IDI
Allison H. Fine - Chief Executive Officer, The E-Volve Foundation
Tim Erickson - E-Democracy.Org
Costas Panagopolous - Exec. Dir., Political Campaign Management,
NYU (Moderator)

4:10pm BREAK

Level 3, Marvin Center, Grand Ballroom

4:30pm THE POLITICS ONLINE CONFERENCE GREAT DEBATE

Battle to the Death or Interfaith Marriage?
Can the Old Media Fend off its New Media Foe?
Sponsored by: Blogads
Blogs, online journals and Internet news sites have all increased their exposure
exponentially over the last 12 months. Have they finally begun to eat into the market
share of the traditional media? Should network news, radio and newspapers be looking
over their respective shoulders at the charging hordes of online media outlets? The
Politics Online Conference Great Debate is the most anticipated session of the
conference, and that is why we have saved the best for last. This will be politics
“unusual” as our cast of contentious but brilliant panelists go toe-to-toe in the ultimate
debate smack-down. You will definitely laugh, you may even cry, but we guarantee you a
highly entertaining and thought-provoking debate.
David Lytel - Left.org
John Hinderaker - powerlineblog
Versus
Jonah Seiger - Founder, Connections Media LLC
Cliff Sloan - VP, Business Affairs & General Counsel, Washington Post Newsweek
Interactive
Cyrus Krohn - Executive Producer, MSN Video (Moderator)

6:00pm GOLDEN DOT COCKTAIL PARTY

Join us to toast the Golden Dot Award Winners
Live Jazz, great food and well-deserved drinks await you at the final cocktail party of the
2005 Politics Online Conference. This is your last and best chance to network and mingle
as well as to raise your glasses to the winner of the 2005 Golden Dot awards. Enjoy - it’s
on us.

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WELCOME MESSAGE
FROM CAROL DARR
Director, Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet
March 10, 2005
W elcome to the 12th Politics Online
Conference. This year, the innovations
adapted by the 2004 presidential campaigns
have changed the face of elections. These
tactics will feature
prominently in this year’s
conference dialogue,
alongside an increasingly
global array of
technological topics.
This year’s conference
features new panels on
blogs, social software,
corporate tactics and
lobbying, in addition to
sessions on the latest
techniques in online
fundraising, issue
advocacy, grassroots participation and
Internet communications. We have also
added two panels that will introduce you to
some of the hottest up-and-coming political
and technology strategists and the global
Internet trends that are emerging in
campaigns across the globe. In the wake of
both Rathergate and Gannongate, our great
debate will tackle the question of whether
old media and can fend off its new media
foe—the online blogging community.
This year’s Golden Dot Awards, which
recognize excellence in Internet innovation
among political and campaigns and online
journalism, include Web video as a new
competition category. All of our nominees
reflect the cutting edge of online politics.
Over the past year since our last conference,
the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the
Internet has enjoyed a particularly
productive year. In addition to a number of
half day educational seminars, we have
published several new studies, including the
Political Consultant’s Online Fundraising
Primer, Putting Online
Influentials to Work For Your
Campaign, Pioneers in Online
Politics and Under the Radar
and Over the Top: Online
Political Videos in the 2004
Campaign.
Julie Barko, Deputy Director of
the Institute, and I want to thank
our speakers, moderators and
sponsors for their support and
assistance in making this Politics
Online Conference the most
successful conference to date. We also want
to thank the staff of the Institute, as well as
the staff at the Graduate School of Political
Management. And finally, we offer our
enthusiastic and heartfelt appreciation for a
job well done to the conference leaders,
Conference Manager Matthew Zablud and
Conference Deputy Manager Kathie Legg,
as well as the rest of the conference team,
Glen Vierk (Financial Manager), Lindsey
Baldwin (Cocktail Party Coordinator),
Lanny Cardow (Golden Dot
Coordinator/Media Liaison) and Peter
Churchill (Registration/Conference Services
Coordinator).
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The Politics Online Conference 2005 would like to give special thanks to the following
Staff of the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet whose tireless efforts have
made this conference possible.

Julie Barko
Conference Magazine Editor

Glen Vierk
Conference Financial Manager

Lindsey Baldwin
Cocktail Party Coordinator

Lanny Cardow
Golden Dot Coordinator and Media Liaison

Peter Churchill
Registration / Conference Services Coordinator

Christopher Brooks
Plenary Sessions Captain

Ryan Sullivan
Official Conference Photographer

Thank you for all your dedication, hard work and innovative spirit.

We would also like to thank our team of fantastic volunteers, Louise Stephens, Damien
LaManna, Tamara Quandt, Mike Rendina, Curtin Brooks, Laetitia Deweirdt and
Zach Myers.

Sincerely,

Matthew Zablud Kathie Legg

Conference Manager Deputy Conference Manager

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March 10 & 11, 2005

Table of Contents
Conference Agenda 1 Director
Welcome Message from the Institute 7 Carol Darr
Carol Darr
Golden Dot Award Nominees 10 Deputy Director
Speaker Biographies 11 Julie Barko
Grassroots Advocacy and the Internet 35
Vinay Bhagat Research Projects
The Chamber 41 Manager
Neil Hare Joseph Graf
Can Internet Journalism Survive Campaign Finance Law? Some 44
Possible Issues at FEC Senior Advisor
Bradley A. Smith Robert Hoopes
The Internet Election 2004: Lessons from Advocacy Organizations 48
Pam Fielding and Alan Rosenblatt Financial Manager
E-Voter 2004 Study: Crossing the River 52 Glen Vierk
Karen Jagoda
Increasing Activism through Community Engagement 56 Conference Manager
Andrew Stocking, Randy Paytner, Lisa Sock and Rebecca Young Matthew Zablud
Co-Creation and Open Source Politics: Meetup Communities in the 62
2004 Presidential Campaign Deputy Conference
Christine B. Williams and Bruce D. Weinberg Manager
Web Video 2004: A Breakthrough Technology in a Breakthrough 65 Kathie Legg
Year
Dan Manatt Visiting Fellows
At the Touch of A Button: Maximizing an E-mail List to Mobilize 68 Costas Panagopoulos
Millions Grant Reeher
Mindy Finn Christine Williams
Peaking around the Curtain 71
Ann Yoders Research Staff
The Missing Element for a Happy Medium: Partisanship 73 Lindsay Baldwin
David Lytel Lanny Cardow
The New Digital Divide: What It Means for Grassroots Going 77 Peter Churchill
Forward
Cheryl Contee Work Study
With Dean Now at the DNC, an Extreme Makeover is Required of 80 Chris Brooks
the GOP! Ryan Sullivan
Larry Purpuro
The Internet and Election 2004: Where We Went and Where We 83 Cover Design
Might Go Glen Vierk
Grant Reeher and Steve Davis Matthew Zablud
The Mantra of Business Technology in Today’s Campaigns 87
Ravi Singh
The Internet is an Essential Advocacy Tool for the Left and the Right 90 Copyright© 2005 The
Joy Howell Institute for Politics,
Network-Centric Thinking: the Internet’s Challenge to Egocentric 92 Democracy & the Internet.
Institutions Date of Publication: March
Rob Stuart and Jed Miller 10, 2005.
Maps

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2005 GOLDEN DOT AWARDS
The Golden Dot Awards honor those who exhibited excellence in their use of the Internet as a political tool
over the past year. As an election year, 2004 was a landmark year for politics online, and this year’s
winners of the Golden Dots truly represent the movers and shakers of cutting-edge campaigning.

This year, the Golden Dots committee received a total of 140 nominations for awards in seven categories.
Across the board, the submissions were of extremely high quality. This was partially due to the fact that it
was an election year, but was compounded by the relentless improvement of technology that comes with
each passing year. The steadily increasing adoption of broadband Internet connections in homes across the
country will only encourage this trend.

The awards recognize outstanding achievement between the dates of March 20, 2004 and January 20, 2005.
The finalists in the seven categories are listed below.

Category Finalists
1. Best Breakout/Impact Internet Moment John Perzel
DNC Post-Debate Online Campaign
FactCheck.org
Jib Jab
Republican National Convention 7. Best Political Web Video or Animation (New
for 2005)
2. Best PAC/527 or Political Party Internet DNC Online fundraising advertisement
Campaign animations
Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund Republican Survivor
GOP.com Ronald Reagan Tribute
MoveOn.org White House West
Swift Vets and POWs for Truth

3. Best Non-Commercial Online Journalism The Golden Dot Awards will be announced and
CommandPost presented at Friday’s cocktail reception, which runs
MyDD from 6:00-8:00 pm.
Powerline Blog
Award winners are selected by an impartial panel of
Wonkette academics, journalists, civic activists and members of the
Golden Dot Awards Committee.
4. Best National Internet Campaign
Bush Cheney 04 2004 Golden Dot winners include:
Bush v. Choice Best Breakout/Impact Moment – Draft Wesley
Kerry Edwards 04 Clark
Rock the Vote Best PAC or Political Party Internet Campaign –
GOP.com
5. Best Statewide Internet Campaign Best Non-Commercial Online Journalism –
Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus KQED, “You Decide”
Harry Reid Best National Internet Campaign – Dean For
John Thune America
YesOn63.org Best Statewide Internet Campaign – Citizens for
Tax Repeal, Ohio
6. Best Local Internet Campaign Best Local Internet Campaign – DC Vote,
Glendale Neighbors Online DC Budget Rider Campaign
Mary Jo Kilroy
Brett Mandel

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 Speaker Biographies
MORRA AARONS - Vice President Interactive,
Edelman
Morra is Vice President of Interactive Services at
Edelman in Washington, DC, where she
manages online communications, marketing and
advocacy for Edelman clients. During the 2004
Election, Morra was the Director of Internet
Marketing for the Democratic National
Committee, where she oversaw online
fundraising, organizing and marketing. She also
worked in the same capacity at John Kerry for
President. Before coming to Washington, Morra
worked in various roles at leading online
companies. She managed iVillage.com’s award-
winning public affairs program in New York,
then transferred to London where she managed
marketing and public relations for iVillage UK,
the British arm of the leading women’s Web site.
After leaving iVillage, Morra was VP/Head of
Marketing for eBookers.com (Europe’s #1 online
travel site). Morra has a degree in Political
Science from Brown University.
DAVID ALPERT - Co-Founder and Director,
Cosmopolity
David Alpert co-founded Cosmopolity, an
organization dedicated to providing easy
entrance into progressive involvement, using
social interaction to promote political action and
facilitating collaboration among progressive
organizations.
Cosmopolity projects include an online calendar
of progressive events (http://cosmopolity.org/),
Drinking Liberally (http://drinkingliberally.org/),
a weekly Democratic drinking club now with 36
chapters across the country and numerous in-
person events and conferences including RNC
Week at The Tank during the Republican
National Convention in New York and the
Morning After Conference in November 2004.
David also founded IPac (http://ipaction.org/), a
nonpartisan group dedicated to preserving
individual freedom through balanced intellectual
property policy. He holds a degree in Computer
Science from Harvard and currently works as a
Product Manager for Google.
PHIL ANDERSON - Managing Principal,
Navigators
As a former Senior Vice President of
government relations for the American Council
of Life Insurers (ACLI), Phil Anderson was
responsible for lobbying federal and state issues
affecting ACLI member companies. Prior to
joining ACLI anderson was Director of Federal
Government Affairs for the Independent
Insurance Agents of America. In addition to
lobbying members of Congress and
congressional staffers, he designed and directed
the grassroots campaigns for 300,000 agent
members. During the early 1990s anderson held
a series of policy and political positions on
Capitol Hill with the national Republican Party
and the Bush I White House, including serving
as Special Assistant to Vice President Dan
Quayle and Lee Atwater. In 1988 anderson
handled media relations at the Republican
National Convention. Anderson also served as a
top official in several prominent Republican
leadership operations, serving as Convention
Manager for former Vice President Dan
Quayle’s Campaign America at the 1996
Republican National Convention and as Deputy
Director of former Governor Carol Campbell’s
Victory America.
JULIE BARKO - Deputy Director, The
Institute for Politics, Democracy & the
Internet
Before coming to the Institute, Julie served as
the Assistant to the President of Rome
Foundation International, a non-profit
organization dedicated to providing health care
in emerging countries. She has previously
worked as a writer, editor and program manager
for international initiatives in Korea, Ukraine,
Haiti and the United States. Julie is a founding
member of Young Champions, a non-profit that
works with youth health issues.
As an undergraduate, she studied Literature,
Philosophy and Classics at Messiah College.
Julie also studied at Keble College, Oxford
University, as well as in Edinburgh, Scotland.
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She was a Pew Younger Scholar of Literature at
the University of Notre Dame. In 2003, she
received an M.A. from The George Washington
University, where she was a University Fellow.
She served as the principal author and editor of
the Institute’s Political Consultants’ Online
Fundraising Primer and co-authored Putting
Online Influentials to Work for Your Campaign.
MICHAEL BASSIK - VP, Internet
Advertising, Malchow, Schlackman, Hoppey,
& Cooper
Michael Bassik is Vice President for Internet
Advertising at Malchow Schlackman Hoppey &
Cooper, the leading political persuasion mail
firm in America. Michael joined MSHC last
year to head up its new online division, focused
on helping candidates and organizations use the
Internet to reach current and potential supporters.
Under Michael’s leadership, MSHC has
executed over 100 different banner ad campaigns
and delivered over one billion ad impressions on
behalf of Democratic candidates at all levels of
the ballot. MSHC was also the online
advertising agency of record for John Kerry and
the Democratic National Committee during the
2004 election cycle.
Before joining MSHC, Michael worked at
America Online as Director of Political
Advertising; where he oversaw political sales
strategy across Time Warner’s online properties,
including AOL, CNN.com and TIME.com.
Michael has previously held internship positions
at The White House, The New York Times, New
York City Hall and on various political
campaigns. He is a graduate of the University of
Pennsylvania and currently attends evening
classes at Brooklyn Law School.
VINAY BHAGAT - Founder, Chairman and
Chief Strategy Officer, Convio Inc.
Vinay Bhagat founded and heads strategy for
Convio, Inc. Convio is the leading provider of
software and services to help nonprofit
organizations and political campaigns use the
Internet to develop a strong base of constituents
to donate, advocate, volunteer and provide other
forms of mission-critical support. Convio has
worked with presidential campaigns, among
them, Dean for America, which mobilized
650,000 constituents and raised more than $20
million online in less than 12 months. Other
clients include American Diabetes Association,
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Animals, Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun
Violence United with the Million Mom March,
Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Chicago
Public Radio, Easter Seals, Farm Aid, KCET
Community Television of Southern California,
Mothers Against Drunk Driving, National Trust
For Historic Preservation and The Susan G.
Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
A frequent speaker at conferences addressing
issues pertaining to ePhilanthropy, Internet
fundraising and online constituency building,
Bhagat has addressed events hosted by the
Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP),
Direct Marketing Association Nonprofit
Federation, Council for the Advancement and
Support of Education (CASE) and Independent
Sector. Bhagat also is a published author and his
chapter, “The Internet – A Powerful Relationship
Management Tool for Fundraisers,” is included
in The Nonprofit Handbook: Fund Raising Third
Edition 2002 Supplement (John Wiley & Sons,
New York). Bhagat currently is writing a
chapter on online advocacy and conversion of
online advocates to donors for Nonprofit Internet
Strategies: Best Practices for Marketing,
Communications and Fundraising Success
(Wiley & Sons), scheduled for early 2005
publication.
Bhagat holds degrees from Harvard Business
School (MBA), Stanford University (MS) and
Cambridge University (MA) in England. He has
worked as a volunteer for a variety of nonprofit
organizations including public television
stations, an AIDS Hospice in Hong Kong and
several Convio clients.
MELISSA BOASBERG - Deputy Director,
Internet Operations, Kerry-Edwards 2004
Melissa Boasberg served as Deputy Director,
Internet Operations for the Kerry-Edwards
campaign. Her dozen years of work experience
have been exclusively focused on business,
management and operations, starting divisions
and improving the efficiency of existing
organizations. Ms. Boasberg’s strong business
background includes several executive-level
positions.
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Prior to her work on the Kerry-Edwards
campaign, she served as Vice President, New
Operations for In2Books, a children’s literacy
non-profit in Washington, DC. Before that, she
was CEO of Amazing Media, an online
advertising software company; her success there
included negotiating and closing the biggest deal
in company history. Prior to that, she served as
Vice President, Business Development for Opion
and before that as Senior Vice President, Online
for Women’s Consumer Network, where she was
responsible for creating and leading new
divisions for these technology companies.
Previously, she was at the Walt Disney
Company, heading its international online efforts
and managing domestic Web properties.
Ms. Boasberg co-led a non-profit business
training and development program in East Palo
Alto. She serves on the board of a public charter
school in DC; she has also been involved in an
adult literacy program and has tutored
extensively in local public schools. She holds a
bachelor’s degree from Yale University, summa
cum laude and a MBA from the Stanford
Graduate School of Business.
STEVEN CLIFT - Strategist, Publicus.Net
Steven Clift is an online strategist and public
speaker focused on the use of the Internet in
democracy, governance and community. One of
world’s leading experts on e-democracy, he is
actively networking people around the world
determined to make a difference with this new
media.
Through Democracies Online, he shares
knowledge and practical advice directly to
thousands of subscribers on his DO-WIRE e-
mail announcement list. His Publicus.Net Web
site contains dozens of original articles and
presentations, including his E-Democracy E-
Book. Behind the scenes, he supports peer-to-
peer online networks for parliamentary online
leaders, civic online consultation facilitators and
others.
After a session working in the Minnesota
Legislature, he attended graduate school at the
Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs,
University of Minnesota. He worked for their
Center for Democracy and Citizenship from
1991 to 1993 and built his online experience
with the launch of the online Public Policy
Network in 1993. As a graduate intern in the
U.S. House in 1993 he was among the first users
of their e-mail gateway to the Internet. He
graduated from Winona State University, a state
college in his hometown, with a B.A. in Political
Science in 1990.
MIKE CONNORS - Sales Manager, The New
York Times
Michael Connors was named Sales Manager for
NYTimes.com in April of 2000. He is
responsible for leading advertising sales in the
financial services, national/local autos, corporate
and political/advocacy categories, as well as all
international advertising.
From 1997 to 2000 Michael was employed as an
Account Manager at The Weather Channel /
weather.com. Initially he was charged with
generating advertising sales revenue for the
newly launched Canadian, European and Latin
American broadcast networks. In 1998 he
transitioned to the online division, where he was
responsible for advertising sales on weather.com
throughout the northeast region.
Prior to working at The Weather Channel
Michael spent 4 years in the national advertising
division of Discovery Communications. Michael
began his career in 1992 as a Media Buyer for
Rapp Collins Worldwide and Saatchi & Saatchi
Direct.
Michael earned a B.S. degree in Civil
Engineering from Bucknell University in 1992.
CHERYL CONTEE - Senior Consultant, IDI
Cheryl comes to IDI with extensive non-profit
and business online content development,
marketing, communications and fundraising
experience. From 2001-2004, Cheryl was
Webmaster and Brand Manager at Oceana, a
start-up international ocean advocacy
organization. Cheryl has been widely credited
with creating a credible, trusted brand identity
for the now-prospering non-profit. Oceana Web
sites, Oceana.org and OceansAtRisk.com, won
nine awards under Contee’s leadership, including
Cool Site of the Day for Earth Day 2002,
Webbie World’s Hot Pick and User’s Choice
13
awards and the Democracy Online Project’s
Golden Dot Award for Innovation and Civic
Excellence in Online Campaigning.
Cheryl’s work helped Oceana recruit more than
100,000 e-activists and over 25,000 paying
members to donate their time and money on
behalf of the world’s oceans.
Prior to joining Oceana, Cheryl was a Senior
Producer at Discovery Communications and
oversaw creative operations and marketing for
all of Discovery’s interactive media outside of
the US in Asia, Europe and Latin America. Her
team of over 40 creative professionals worldwide
extended international cable TV brands online
including Discovery Channel, Animal Planet,
Health Channel, Travel Channel through a
multilingual network of Web sites, e-commerce
partnerships, interactive TV projects and
wireless platforms. Page views during Cheryl’s
tenure rose from 70,000 monthly to 4.3 million
per month at peak levels within one year
resulting in two industry awards and profitable
advertising sales for Discovery’s TV and online
sales.
HENRY COPELAND - Founder,
Blogads.com
Believing that bloggers are the vanguard
of publishing, Henry Copeland in March of 2002
started building Blogads.com, a network to
connect bloggers and advertisers. Though the
first $32 blogad didn’t sell until nearly one
month after site launch, today blogads are used
by equally by corporate behemoths and mom
& mom T-shirt peddlers. Blogads.com ” makes
blogs possible,” says mega-blogger Atrios.
Copeland, 43, grew up in Wooster, Ohio and in
1984 received a BA in history from Yale
University after nearly flunking econ and
compsci. After selling bonds on Wall Street (‘84-
91) and reporting on post-Soviet economies (‘91-
’98), Copeland founded Blogads.com’s corporate
parent in 1998.
MICHAEL COLOPY - Aristotle
International
Michael Colopy combines robust background in
advocacy communications, legislative
experience on Capitol Hill, firsthand familiarity
with the mechanisms of civic engagement
through numerous national issue campaigns
combined with a solid grounding in US foreign
policy and a highly effective speaking and
writing style. His special knack is reducing
complex issues to comprehensible and attractive
images and phrases in ways that change public
perceptions and motivate target audiences to act,
a skill that has been demonstrated from the halls
of the US Congress in Washington to the
campaign “war room” of the pro-democracy
coalition in Kiev, Ukraine.
For nearly two decades, Michael Colopy has
guided and assisted a broad mix of American
business, corporate executives and foreign
clients. In 1988 he co-founded International
Commerce Consultants Incorporated (ICCI) in
McLean Virginia with affiliates in six countries,
specializing in communications, foreign policy
and trade issues in East Asia, with special focus
on China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, logging more
than fifty extended visits to the region. He has
advised major US corporations such as GE,
BellSouth, ECI, Corning and many smaller
enterprises, notably Aristotle International, the
leading political software and voter data
company in the US, helping them build brand
and effective message and positioning them to
advance their success.
In November 2004, Aristotle International’s
CEO, John Phillips, recruited Mr. Colopy to
extend his communications work for the
company to a project with the pro-democracy
Ukraine coalition, Nasha Ukraina, in its struggle
to install a validly elected government and up-
end the quasi-dictatorship of Moscow-backed
Leonid Kuchma. Michael Colopy designed and
managed the highly effective communications
functions of Aristotle International’s fraud
monitoring effort as part of the “Orange
Revolution”, the results of which contributed to
the invalidation of the fraudulent election in a
dramatic drawn out struggle witnessed on
television worldwide.
PETER DAOU - Online Communications
Advisor, Kerry-Edwards 2004
Peter Daou publishes The Daou Report, a Web
site that tracks leading blogs, message boards,
online magazines and independent sites from
across the political spectrum. Peter was the
online communications advisor to John Kerry’s
campaign, where he was responsible for outreach
14
to the blog community. In addition to blogging
for the campaign and editing the johnkerry.com
homepage, Peter launched and managed the D-
Bunker, a fact-checking and rapid response
section of johnkerry.com. His daily blog survey,
the Blog Buzz, was the campaign staff’s primary
source for online news and opinion.
CHUCK DEFEO - eCampaign Manager,
Bush-Cheney ‘04
CAROL C. DARR – Director, Institute for
Politics Democracy & The Internet
Carol C. Darr became the Director of the
Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet
on November 1, 2001. She is an associate
research professor at the Graduate School of
Political Management of The George
Washington University.
Darr has spent most of her career in national
politics and government. During the Clinton-
Gore Administration, she served as the Acting
General Counsel of the U.S. Department of
Commerce and as Associate Administrator of the
Office of International Affairs in the National
Telecommunications and Information
Administration. She also chaired the
International Telecommunications Working
Group of the interagency Information
Infrastructure Task Force (IITF) and was part of
the U.S. delegation to the G7 Information
Society Conference in Brussels.
In the 1992 election, Darr served as General
Counsel to the Democratic National Committee.
Previously, she had served as the Chief Counsel
to the Dukakis/Bentsen Presidential Committee
in 1988 and as the Deputy Counsel to the
Carter/Mondale Presidential Committee in 1980.
She was an associate at the law firm Skadden,
Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, the Deputy
Counsel for Elections at the U.S. Senate
Committee for Rules and Elections and worked
as a staff attorney at the Federal Election
Commission.
Darr was the vice president of two high-tech
trade associations. She received an M.Litt in
History from Christ’s College, Cambridge
University and a J.D. and a B.A. from the
University of Memphis.
KEN DEUTSCH - Executive Vice President,
IDI
Ken Deutsch serves as Executive Vice President
at Issue Dynamics Inc. (IDI). In this role Mr.
Deutsch leads the development of online
campaign strategies for public relations and
public affairs. As an early innovator of the use of
the Internet as a public affairs tool, Deutsch
oversaw the development of the first corporate
public affairs Internet site (1993 - Bell Atlantic -
www.ba.com), the first major political party
committee and candidate Internet sites (1994 -
Democratic Senate Campaign Committee -
www.dscc.org), the first independent
Congressional site (1994 -
policy.net/congress.org), and the first Internet to
phone gateway to Congress (1998 - Washington
Call Manager).
Mr. Deutsch has served as a public
affairs/relations Internet consultant for a wide
variety of clients including: BellSouth;
GunFreeKids.org, the NAACP, Verizon, THE
MARCH: Coming Together to Conquer Cancer,
the National Association of the Deaf, the
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the
National Environmental Trust, BlueCross
BlueShield Association and many others.
Prior to joining IDI in 1993, Mr. Deutsch served
as Field Director for Public Citizen. Mr. Deutsch
worked as Organizing Director for the New York
Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) for
six years. In his position at NYPIRG he served
as field director for the New York City Charter
ballot initiative in 1988, Election Day
coordinator for the 1990 New York State
Environmental Bond Act and coordinator for all
the “Earth Day New York City 1990” field
activities.
TIM ERICKSON - E-Democracy.Org
Tim Erickson is the founder and president of
Politalk, an online forum for facilitated
discussions on important social and political
topics, based in St. Paul, Minnesota. Politalk
discussions are interactive e-mail events that
generally include policy makers, academic
experts, community activists and concerned
citizens.
15
Tim also works with Minnesota E-Democracy to
facilitate local online candidate debates and
ongoing policy discussions in his hometown of
St. Paul.
PAM FIELDING - President, e-advocates
Pam Fielding is nationally recognized as one of
the leading pioneers in the field of
cyberadvocacy. A policy writer, Internet
strategist and author, she has successfully
leveraged the Internet as a tool for political
action and activism in numerous online
campaigns over the last five years.
Before starting e-advocates, Fielding spent more
than 10 years working in the association arena
and launched one of the top online advocacy
programs in the country for the National
Education Association. The program delivers
tens of thousands of e-mails annually to
Congress and state legislatures in support of
public education.
Fielding’s work in the field of Internet politics
and her successful cyberadvocacy campaigns
have garnered extensive press coverage
including ABC’s “Nightline,” CNN Headline
News, Fortune, Business Week, Reuters,
Associated Press and more. She is a frequent
speaker and guest lecturer who has conducted
presentations on Internet advocacy for American
University, George Washington University and
the American Society of Association Executives,
among others.
Fielding is the co-author of The Net Effect: How
Cyberadvocacy is Changing the Political
Landscape, the first published book on Internet
advocacy.
ALLISON H. FINE - Chief Executive Officer,
The E-Volve Foundation
Ms. Fine currently serves as the C.E.O. of The
E-Volve Foundation. The mission of the E-
Volve Foundation is to identify, support and
promote open source technology efforts aimed at
providing information and access to citizens for
participation in democratic processes. In so
doing, it uses technology to create or augment
and leverage social networks to encourage
widespread involvement and participation that
are the cornerstones to equitable, long-term
solutions to social issues.
Ms. Fine currently serves on the board of
directors of Just Vision, a nonprofit organization
that increases awareness about Palestinian and
Israeli non-violent, civilian-led efforts to build a
base for peace in the Middle East. Ms. Fine also
serves on the Ethics and Accountability
Committee of Independent Sector, on the
advisory boards of Boardroom Books and the
Jacob Burns Film Center. She has been
published in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the
NIDR Forum and Foundation News and
Commentary and has co-authored studies for the
Aspen Institute Nonprofit Sector Research Fund,
the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the
David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Ms. Fine
has a Masters in public administration from New
York University and a Bachelor of Arts in
political science and history from Vanderbilt
University. From 1987-1989, Ms. Fine served as
an elected trustee of the Village of Sleepy
Hollow, NY and was appointed the Fire and
Police Commissioner.
MINDY FINN - eCampaign E-mail, Bush-
Cheney ‘04
Mindy Finn recently joined the Republican
National Committee as Deputy eCampaign
Director to help foster the Republican Party’s
goals through the use of e-mail and the Internet.
Before working at the RNC, Mindy served as
Deputy Webmaster for Bush-Cheney ‘04, where
she facilitated the message, voter turnout and
finance e-mail programs, promoted volunteer
action on GeorgeWBush.com and directed the
online chat series with key surrogates and
campaign staff.
With a background in online media and political
affairs, Mindy pioneered her first big political
effort online as a staffer for Congressman Lamar
Smith (TX-21). She developed and implemented
strategy for reaching diverse audiences through
the Congressman’s new and improved public
Web site, which went on to receive Pollie award
honors.
BRAD FITCH - Congressional Management
Foundation
16
Brad Fitch is Deputy Director of the
Congressional Management Foundation (CMF),
the author of Media Relations Handbook for
Agencies, Associations, Nonprofits and Congress
and an adjunct associate professor at American
University. Fitch has spent 20 years in
Washington as a journalist, congressional aide,
consultant, college instructor and writer.
After working as a radio and television reporter
in the mid-1980’s, Fitch began working on
Capitol Hill in 1988. During his 13 years on
Capitol Hill, he served in a variety of positions
for four Members of Congress in the House and
Senate, including press secretary, legislative
director and chief of staff.
Fitch left Congress in 2001 to work for the
Congressional Management Foundation, a non-
profit, non-partisan organization that advises
congressional offices on how to improve
operations. As Deputy Director of CMF, he
serves as a management consultant for Members
of Congress, offering confidential guidance,
conducting staff training programs and writing
publications on enhancing the performance of
individual congressional offices and the
institution. He served as editor of Setting
Course: A Congressional Management Guide for
the 108th Congress and 109th Congress editions.
He currently is overseeing a two-year project to
improve communications between grassroots
organizations and Congress.
Since 1995, Fitch has taught journalism and
public communications at American University
in Washington, D.C. He received his B.A.
degree in Political Science from Johns Hopkins
University and his M.A. degree in Journalism
and Public Affairs at American University.
JUSTIN GERMANY - Web Video, Bush-
Cheney ‘04
Justin Germany is an Account Executive with
Campaign Solutions specializing in Web-video.
He joins campaign solutions after serving as the
videographer and editor for the Bush-Cheney
eCampaign. His work served as a nexus between
digital documentary and political message that
showcased the President on the campaign trail.
That work resulted in over twenty videos seen by
more than a million people on the Bush-
Cheney’04 Web site.
The New York Times took note of Germany’s
editing and shooting style, describing a movie he
filmed and edited for the President’s rallies as,
“the video stands out…edgy, unpresidential
style, with grainy pictures, speeded-up-action
and off kilter camera angles shouting out ‘You
got a problem with this?’ to anyone under 25.”
Footage he shot was also used for TV ads and
convention videos, additionally he won two
Pollie awards for videos he shot and edited for
the campaign.
Germany graduated with a Bachelors of Arts in
Mass Communication from Louisiana State
University in 2002 and a Masters of Arts in
Political Management from The George
Washington University in 2003.
ANDY GOLODNY - Director of Internet
Operations, Tom Daschle for Senate
Andy Golodny oversaw all aspects of Internet
strategy including the Web site, e-mail list,
fundraising and advertising for the Tom Daschle
campaign. Under his leadership, the campaign
took in over a million dollars in fundraising and
had dramatic e-mail list growth. The campaign’s
Web site was a multi-hundred page site with a
wide variety of supporter action tools and
informative pages including a daily blog,
constituent areas and multimedia content. Andy
also ran a successful online advertising program
through blog ads and paid search words.
Before joining the Daschle campaign, Golodny
was the Iowa database manager for the John
Edwards for President campaign where he ran
the database for the field program and oversaw
the IT program for the campaign’s caucus
operation.
Golodny holds a BA in political science from
Brown University.
WILLIAM GREENE - Founder and Director,
RightMarch.com
Dr. William Greene is founder and president of
RightMarch.com, an online conservative
organization formed as a “rapid response force”
to enable its members to take effective action
against activities by online liberal groups like
MoveOn.org. He heads up the RightMarch.com
17
PAC as well, which targets federal races where
they can support staunch movement
conservatives against liberal Republicans and
Democrats. Greene is also president of Strategic
Internet Campaign Management, Inc.
(SICM.com - pronounced “sick ‘em”), an online
political consulting firm that enables
organizations and candidates to harness the
power of the Internet for fundraising and
grassroots activism; in 2004, Greene’s firm was
instrumental in raising nearly half a million
dollars online in less than three months for the
upstart U.S. Senate candidacy of Dr. Alan Keyes
in Illinois SICM manages the
ConservativeAlerts.com e-mail and postal list,
which has been responsible for over three million
activist messages sent from conservatives to
Congress, the President and other leaders.
In its April, 2002 issue, Campaigns and
Elections magazine, the trade publication for
political professionals, featured Greene as one of
its “Rising Stars In Politics;” he is also listed in
the 2003, 2004 and 2005 editions of Who’s Who
In America. Greene was formerly VP Internet
Marketing & Development at
ConservativeHQ.com Inc., a conservative online
activism and fundraising company headed by
political direct mail legend Richard A. Viguerie;
prior to his work there, he was the Director of
Internet Marketing at The Grizzard Agency of
Atlanta, a top ten direct marketing agency, as
well as Internet Manager at Jesus Fellowship,
Inc., in Miami, which was in the vanguard of
Internet use for religious nonprofits, with sites
like Churches dot Net and the Christian Internet
Broadcast Network (citv.com).
Initially, Greene was in academia, teaching
political science and international relations at
Florida International University (fiu.edu) in
Miami for a number of years; he still takes time
out to teach political science college classes at
Verity in Flint, Michigan (verityeducation. org).
Greene has presented many seminars on
fundraising and activism online, including the
Campaigns & Elections Magazine Annual
Conference, George Washington University’s
annual Politics Online conference, the
Conservative Political Action Conference
(CPAC), the O’Reilly Emerging Technology
Conference, the Direct Marketing Association of
Washington, the DC Ad Club, the American
Marketing Association of Lincoln and others. He
has appeared on Bill Moyers’ NOW, NPR’s
“Fresh Air” and “Morning Edition,” CNN’s
“Paula Zahn Now,” MSNBC Live, the CBS
Sunday Morning News and dozens of radio talk
shows around the country; the Washington
Times called Greene a “conservative Internet
guru.”
ROBERT HAHN - Executive Director, Free
Republic Network
Mr. Hahn is the owner of Concinnate Systems,
an Internet technology provider to many
conservative organizations and causes. Mr.
Hahn’s firm provided the technology platform
for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, one of the
most effective political efforts in decades. Prior
to devoting his efforts to conservative politics,
Mr. Hahn spent 20 years as a sales and
marketing executive in the computer industry.
He holds a degree in Economics from Stanford
University and an MBA from the Harvard
Business School.
NEIL HARE - Vice President, Corporate
Communications U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Neil Hare is vice president of Corporate
Communications at the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce, the world’s largest business
federation representing more than 3 million
companies. In this capacity he manages a team of
writers, graphic artists, Web designers and
photographers who keep Chamber members
informed of lobbying efforts on their behalf and
membership benefits. The group produces a
variety of publications including
uschamber.com, a monthly publication with a
circulation of 250,000 and uschamber.com
weekly, an e-mail newsletter and maintains a
vast, interactive Web site for small businesses
that receives more than 350,000 visitors per
month.
Previously, Mr. Hare served as vice president of
the National Chamber Foundation, the
Chamber’s educational research arm, where he
oversaw public policy events and publications.
Before joining the Chamber, Mr. Hare was the
content director of USLaw.com, the nation’s
leading Web site offering legal information and
services to consumers and small businesses.
Mr. Hare, an attorney, also worked in a
Washington, D.C., law firm, specializing in
litigation and as a legal editor for the Bureau of
18
National Affairs (BNA), covering America’s
securities markets. He appeared regularly on
CNBC, MSNBC and FoxNews as an expert on
day trading and wrote columns on securities
regulations for financial publications.
Mr. Hare received a J.D. from American
University’s Washington College of Law in
1995; a diploma in European law from Nanterre
University, Paris, France, in 1994; and a B.A. in
international relations from Tufts University in
1991. He is a member of the New York Bar and
the District of Columbia Bar and is on the board
of directors of D.C. Scores, a nonprofit
organization that provides after-school writing
and soccer programs to elementary school
children in Washington, D.C.
SCOTT HEIFERMAN - CEO, Meetup.com
Scott Heiferman is CEO of Meetup.com,
revolutionizing how people organize local real-
world community groups. Meetup.com first
became well known for powering the grassroots
presidential campaign of Howard Dean. Now,
over 2 million people (and growing) have started
or signed up for local self-organized Meetup
Groups in over 50 countries about knitting,
chihuauhas, conservative politics and most every
other cause or interest that brings groups
together. The company’s Board of
Directors includes Esther Dyson, Pierre Omidyar
(Founder/Chairman, eBay) and Andreas
Stavropoulos (DFJ).
In 2002, Scott co-founded Fotolog.net, now the
world’s largest online photo community. In
1995,
Scott founded i-traffic, the pioneering online ad
agency now owned by Omnicom. Previously,
Scott was “Interactive Marketing Frontiersman”
at Sony, where he created Sony’s first consumer
online presence. In 2004,
Scott was given a Rave Award by Wired
Magazine for “Electrifying The Grassroots” and
he was named the 2004 M.I.T. Technology
Review “Innovator of the Year”. Scott sits on the
Advisory Board of the
Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet
at The George Washington University and the
National Conference on Citizenship. He
graduated from The University of Iowa and has
posted a photo on his personal Fotolog every day
since 2001 (http://www.fotolog.net/heif ).
JOHN HINDERAKER – powerlineblog
John H. Hinderaker is a lawyer with the
Minneapolis law firm Faegre & Benson. For
more than ten years Hinderaker has written with
his former law partner Scott Johnson on public
policy issues including income inequality,
income taxes, campaign finance reform,
affirmative action, welfare reform and race in the
criminal justice system. Both Hinderaker and
Johnson are fellows of the Claremont Institute.
Their articles have appeared in National Review,
The American Enterprise, American Experiment
Quarterly and newspapers from Florida to
California.
HEATHER HOLDRIDGE - Partner, CTSG
A CTSG Partner, Heather Holdridge is
company’s Director of Online Organizing and
Campaigns. She brings years of experience
working with online and grassroots campaigns
across the progressive spectrum. Heather
specializes creative campaigns with deliberate
impact. She works with our clients and
campaigners to develop viral interactive media
with punch to find and engage new activists
through campaign sites, online marketing and
flash action campaigns for clients as diverse as
SEIU’s Justice for Janitors, Planned Parenthood,
Oregon Death with Dignity, Amnesty USA,
Campaign for America’s Future and the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
(DCCC). She was also on the ground as a
member of the Democratic Truth Squad/Rolling
Donkey Crew at the Republican Convention in
2000.
Heather also leads the creative multimedia unit at
CTSG, which has been honored with five Pollies
in the past two years, including three in January
for the DCCC’s Republican Survivor, the first-
ever interactive political Web series.
Prior to CTSG, Heather ran the Reporter’s
Resource Center and acted as Legislative
Services Director for Project Vote Smart.
Heather is happily exploiting her lifelong status
as political junkie in DC after three years in
CTSG’s Eugene office.
JOY HOWELL - Cambridge Strategic
Partners
19

KAREN JAGODA - President and Founder,
E-Voter Institute
Karen Jagoda is Founder and President of E-
Voter Institute, a trade association representing
Web publishers and political and advocacy
solution providers. This initiative grew out of
work on E-Voter 98, a case study measuring the
impact of online advertising for political
candidates produced in cooperation with the
New York Times during the race for governor of
New York in 1998. The Institute has since
published research every year on the subject of
the intersection of politics and the Internet and
has brought together a wide range of experts and
insiders to consider the implications of changes
in the political landscape. Crossing the River:
The Coming of Age of the Internet in Politics and
Advocacy, edited by Karen Jagoda, will be
published in late spring 2005. This book
contains essays and analyses about the 2004
election as well as research and commentary on
the development of the Internet for persuasion,
fundraising and mobilization.
Ms. Jagoda is also the founder of Turtleback
Interactive, a company specializing in strategic
research and consulting on e-business
development and use of the Internet for cost-
effective marketing and communications.
Turtleback was the creator and architect of
MarylandB2B.com, an Internet site that
promoted business growth and development in
Maryland.
As co-founder of Turtlesnap Ventures, Karen
Jagoda has developed and produced the
Turtlesnap Investment Symposia series now in
its fourth year. Topics have included Infotech,
Biotech, Nanotech, E-Learning, Homeland
Security and Global Trends in Technology.
MICHAEL JANOFSKY - Washington DC
Bureau, New York Times
JONATHAN KARUSH - President, Liberty
Concepts LLC
Jonathan Karush is the founder and President of
Liberty Concepts, the nation’s largest provider of
campaign Web sites to House and Senate
Democrats and a leading provider of all types of
civic Web sites. Jonathan worked in many high
profile races in 2004 including Denise Majette
(GA-Senate), Ken Salazar (CO-Senate), John
Salazar (CO-3), Richard Romero (NM-1), Joe
Driscoll (PA-15) and Bill Gluba (IA-1).
Jonathan received the Golden Dot Award in
2003 for best congressional campaign site in the
2002 election cycle for Congressman Mike
Michaud (ME-02). Liberty also consults to state
parties, PAC’s, 527’s, unions, state and local
candidates and universities. In 2000, Jonathan
co-founded letnaderdebate.org, one of the
infamous ‘nader-trader’ vote swapping Web
sites.
Jonathan is a former editor at the NetElection
project and a Sagner Fellow. He was awarded
first prize in Ohio State University’s annual
public policy essay competition for his piece on
the ‘Internet and the Future of Democracy.’ He
has written extensively on the role of the Internet
in American elections and online voting.
Jonathan has been frequent speaker and
correspondent on the Internet in civic life,
including as a former political correspondent to
RAI (Royal Italian Television). Jonathan has a
B.A. cum laude from the University of
Pennsylvania with distinction in political science
MIKE KREMPASKY - Political Director,
American Target Advertising
Mike Krempasky is the Political Director at
American Target Advertising, a Virginia firm
run by Richard Viguerie, the conservative
strategist widely credited with inventing political
direct mail and helping Ronald Reagan and
numerous other Republicans get elected. He
helps to build technology solutions for political
and charitable clients as well as works with
public policy groups to start and use blogs as an
effective communication and membership
development tool. He has helped to train
conservative grassroots activists across the
country as a part of the Leadership Institute
(1999-2003). And more recently, he helped to
co-found RedState.org: a conservative
collaborative Weblog that has transformed into a
527 organization.
CYRUS KROHN - Executive Producer, MSN
Video
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Cyrus Krohn is publisher of Slate magazine. He
directed the political advertising division for
MSN.com, the Microsoft Network, for the 2000
presidential election cycle. Prior to joining
Microsoft, Krohn produced programs for CNN’s
Crossfire and Larry King Live. Previously,
Krohn served in the White House as an intern to
Vice President Dan Quayle.
JO LEE - Co-founder, CitizenSpeak
Jo Lee co-founded and directs CitizenSpeak: a
free e-mail advocacy service for grassroots
organizations. She is responsible for managing
all functional areas of the organization including;
sales, marketing, business development, public
relations and finance. Jo is also a public
relations consultant for VoIP equipment
developers and service providers.
DAVID LYTEL - left.org
David Lytel is a former Democratic elected
official who runs Left.org, a community site for
the nation’s political majority and Majority
Media, LLC, a producer of Web sites, videos and
mobilization campaigns for candidates and
causes.
In the political arena, Lytel is one of the
opposition industry’s most experienced online
organizers. He was the co-developer and
managing editor of the White House Web site in
the first Clinton Administration, ran the first
Internet-based Federal PAC (Democrats Online)
in 1996, the first major community site for
Democrats (Democrats.com) in 2000 and the
first PAC to finance its operation from the online
sale of merchandise (ReDefeatBush.com) in
2004. He has provided Internet campaign
support for Senators Wellstone, Corzine and
Edwards, for about 3 dozen candidates for the
House of Representatives and a number of
associations. Lytel served in the White House
Office of Science and Technology in President
Clinton’s first term.
Dr. Lytel holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in
government from Cornell University. His
dissertation concerned the popularization of
interactive media in France. He held a post-
doctoral position at the Information
Infrastructure Project of Harvard University’s
John F. Kennedy School of Government. He has
taught Internet history, law and policy in the
Communications, Culture and Technology
program at Georgetown University. As a scholar
his work has been published in Réalité
Industrielles, Médiaspouvoirs, Political
Communication, Géopolitique, Contemporary
French Civilization, The Information Society and
others.
Dr. Lytel was honored by Federal Computing
magazine in 1995 as one of the 100 most
influential people in the technology community.
He is a Fellow of the Center for Global
Communications (GLOCOM) in Tokyo and a
member of the Centre d’Etude de Prospective
Stratégique (CEPS) in Paris.
ELLEN MALCOLM - President, EMILY’s
List
Ellen R. Malcolm is the founder and president of
EMILY’s List. An acronym for “Early Money Is
Like Yeast” because it “makes the dough rise,”
EMILY’s List is a political network for pro-
choice Democratic women candidates that raises
early money to make women credible
contenders.
Malcolm has been active in public service in
Washington, D.C., for 30 years. She worked at
Common Cause in the early 1970s and later
served as press secretary for the National
Women’s Political Caucus. She continued her
career in politics by joining the White House
staff in 1980 as press secretary for Esther
Peterson, President Carter’s special assistant for
consumer affairs.
In 1985, determined to break down the barriers
faced by women seeking elected office, Malcolm
and a group of friends created EMILY’s List,
which supports pro-choice Democratic women
campaigning for governor, the U.S. Senate and
the House of Representatives. Since its founding,
EMILY’s List has helped send 11 pro-choice
Democratic women to the U.S. Senate, 60 to the
U.S. House of Representatives and to elect eight
governors.
The recipient of numerous awards and honors,
Malcolm was named one of America’s most
influential women in 1998 by Vanity Fair
magazine and, in 1999, one of the 100 Most
Important Women in America by Ladies’ Home
Journal. In 1992, Malcolm was among Glamour
21
magazine’s Women of the Year and was also
named Most Valuable Player by the American
Association of Political Consultants.
EVAN COYNE MALONEY - Editor, Brain-
Terminal.com & Documentary Filmmaker
Evan Coyne Maloney is a documentary
filmmaker and political commentator based in
New York City. In August of 2001, Evan
launched the Web site Brain-Terminal.com as a
platform for his commentary and in February
2003, he posted his first short video “Protesting
the Protesters” to the site. Within a day, Fox
News Channel featured clips of the video and
one day later, Rush Limbaugh played audio clips
and plugged Evan’s site online.
Brain-Terminal.com now features a dozen of
Maloney’s short videos, including an ambush
interview with Michael Moore that occurred
after a four-day stakeout. In 2003, Maloney’s site
recorded over 5 million hits and in 2004, it
topped 6.2 million hits.
Maloney’s current project - slated for release in
the fourth quarter of 2005 - is a feature-length
documentary film analyzing political correctness
on college campuses. Last fall, a preview release
of that film, entitled “Brainwashing 101,”
premiered to standing ovations at
the American Film Renaissance festival in Dallas
and the Liberty Film Festival in Los Angeles. At
the end of the year, “Brainwashing 101” was
named as one of the Ten Best Documentaries of
2004 by the Liberty Film
Festival and the follow-up to “Brainwashing
101” was named the Most Anticipated
Documentary of 2005 by the American Film
Renaissance.
Prior to his career as a documentary filmmaker,
Maloney wrote Internet software for several
start-ups and worked on various political
campaigns, serving as Chief of Staff for a New
York State Assembly race, Campaign Manager
for two judicial races and Communications
Director for a New York State Senate race.
In 1994, Maloney posted the first known
political fundraising solicitation on the Internet
in the UseNet newsgroups.
DANIEL MANATT - Principal,
manatt.net/Web Video for Politics
Producer/consultant Daniel Manatt has been at
the cutting edge of Web Video since 1999 and
founded the first ever Web Video firm in 2003.
His groundbreaking work for clients including
EMILY’s List, DCCC, the Center for American
Progress and Debt Aids Trade Africa (DATA),
the advocacy organization founded by U2’s
Bono, made him the first ever Pollie award
winner for a Web Video.
His work has earned him honors from the
American Association of Political Consultants,
Campaigns & Elections Magazine, MoveOn.org
and the Institute for Politics, Democracy & The
Internet.
Prior to entering media, Manatt worked as a
congressional aide, Senate campaign press
secretary and attorney.
Manatt’s latest venture is DemsTV.com, a Web
Show/video blog that is part game show, part
political show. It debuts this month.
NICCO MELE - CEO, EchoDitto
Nicco Mele was Governor Howard Dean’s
presidential campaign Webmaster and a leading
Internet strategist. Nicco has broad experience
working with NGOs and non-profits, including
as Webmaster at Common Cause and at the
International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, in
addition to his time as producer of the Shadow
Conventions Web site and live streaming
Webcasts during the 2000 presidential election
cycle. Nicco joined the Dean campaign during
the last week of April 2003 and worked as the
Webmaster managing the technical and design
details of the Dean Web site through March
2004. He was named one of America ‘s “best
and brightest” by Esquire magazine in December
2003.
KEN MEHLMAN - Chairman, Republican
National Committee
Ken Mehlman was asked by President Bush to
serve as the chairman of the Republican National
Committee (RNC).
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Ken previously served as the campaign manager
for Bush/Cheney ‘04 which political pundit
Charlie Cook referred to as, “the best planned,
best executed presidential campaign ever.”
Prior to joining the campaign, Mehlman served
as White House Political Director for President
Bush’s first two and a half years, where he
oversaw and executed all aspects of the President
and the Administration’s political strategy,
working with state parties, national committees,
candidates and state and local elected officials in
support of the President’s agenda.
Mehlman served as National Field Director for
Bush-Cheney 2000, where he worked with the
campaign leadership in all fifty states and the
Republican National Committee to execute
winning political plans and mobilize strong
grassroots efforts.
Before joining President Bush, Ken was
Congresswoman Kay Granger’s (TX-12) Chief
of Staff and Congressman Lamar Smith’s (TX-
21) Legislative Director. He practiced
environmental law in Washington and assisted
campaigns in Massachusetts, Ohio, Virginia,
Texas and Georgia, as well as the 1992 and 1996
Presidential campaigns.
Ken is a graduate of Harvard Law School and
Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster,
Pennsylvania. He is a native of Baltimore,
Maryland.
BRIAN MICHAEL - Account Representative,
Mindshare
Brian Michael works with several Mindshare
clients to implement effective interactive
campaign strategies. A graduate of the
University of Pennsylvania, Brian’s prior
experience includes stints as a paralegal, a
research assistant and a volunteer at the
Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.
A former lacrosse player and member of the
Penn crew team, Brian lives in Washington, DC.
An avid baseball fan, Brian is following the
location of the next Major League Baseball
franchise with more than casual interest.
PHIL NOBLE - President, PoliticsOnline
Phil Noble is one of the top experts in the US
and internationally on the use of the Internet in
politics, public affairs, government and media.
Noble is the founder of PoliticsOnline and its
affiliated company Phil Noble & Associates, an
international public affairs consulting firm.
PoliticsOnline is responsible for over a dozen
major innovations and industry first. Noble is a
veteran of over 350 political campaigns and
public affairs projects in 40 states and 30
countries and he has worked to elect the head of
state in 15 countries. He and his companies have
received numerous awards and recognitions for
their work in the US and internationally. Noble
has held teaching and advisory positions with the
Institute of Politics of the Kennedy School at
Harvard, University of Amsterdam, The George
Washington University and University of
Southern California.
COSTAS PANAGOPOLOUS - Executive
Director, Political Campaign Management,
New York University
Mr. Panagopoulos is a Ph.D. candidate in the
Department of Politics at New York University.
His academic research focuses on American
Politics, with an emphasis on campaigns and
elections, voting behavior and public opinion. He
also serves as Executive Director of the Political
Campaign Management Program in the
Department, an initiative he founded that trains
students in the art of practical electioneering. A
former candidate for the Massachusetts State
Legislature in 1992, Mr. Panagopoulos offers
courses in the program that focus on campaign
strategy and message development, political
advertising and media strategy.
Panagopoulos was elected President of the
American Association of Political Consultants’
Mid-Atlantic chapter in 2003. He has also
developed expertise in international political
consulting and has worked as a consultant in the
Electoral Assistance Division at the United
Nations.
A native of Lowell, Massachusetts and the son of
immigrants from Greece, Mr. Panagopoulos
received his undergraduate degree in
Government, magna cum laude, from Harvard
University. He earned his Master’s degree in
Politics from New York University.
Panagopoulos has authored several scholarly
works, including articles that have appeared in
Campaigns & Elections magazine. He has
provided political analysis for such media outlets
23
as the New York Times , CNN, Fox News and
BBC Television.
NATHANIEL PEARLMAN - Founder, NGP
Software
Nathaniel Pearlman, 39, has over a decade and a
half of experience in technology and politics. He
earned a degree in computer science from Yale
and taught American Politics and Statistics while
a doctoral student at MIT. Before founding NGP
Software, Inc. in 1997, he designed several
nationally known software packages for other
DC-based political
technology firms.
NGP Software, Inc. has become a go-to firm for
help in on-line fundraising and Web site
integration, campaign and political databases,
federal and state election commission reporting
and technological infrastructure. NGP worked
for six presidential primary campaigns in 2004,
including U.S. Senator John Kerry’s, providing
list management, fund-raising operations and
software used to file FEC reports. NGP is the
software of choice for a majority of federal
Democrats, as well as many Democratic
fundraising firms and for allies such as America
Coming Together, AFL-CIO, SEIU and CWA.
In Spring, 2004, Nathaniel was named a “Rising
Star of Politics” by Campaigns & Elections
Magazine. Nathaniel lives in Washington, DC
with his wife, Connie and daughter, Ella.
DOUG PINKHAM - President, Public Affairs
Council
Doug Pinkham is president of the Public Affairs
Council, the leading international association for
public affairs professionals. Founded in 1954,
the Council is a non-partisan, non-political
organization that provides training and
development, “best practice” information and
benchmarking services to the public affairs
profession. Members include executives and
managers working in government relations,
corporate communications and community
involvement positions.
Over 500 corporations, associations and
consulting firms belong to the Council. Mr.
Pinkham was elected to head the Public Affairs
Council in 1997. Prior to joining the Council,
Mr. Pinkham was vice president of
communications for the American Gas
Association (AGA), a major trade association
representing natural gas distribution companies.
He has authored numerous articles for trade and
professional magazines around the world and is a
frequent speaker on public affairs issues, politics,
Internet advocacy, communications and
corporate management.
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Mr. Pinkham
graduated with honors from the College of
Wooster in Ohio. While at Wooster, he was
elected to the Phi Beta Kappa society. Mr.
Pinkham is an accredited member of the Public
Relations Society of America. He serves on the
boards of the Boston College Center for
Corporate Citizenship, the European Centre for
Public Affairs, the Institute for Public Relations
and the Center for Ethics in Government. He is
also a judge in the Points of Light Foundation’s
Awards of Excellence in Corporate Community
Service.
JUAN PROANO - President and Co-Founder,
Plus Three
Juan M. Proaño is co-founder and President of
Plus Three, which was formed in 2001 to
improve the way progressive organizations build
constituent groups and fundraise by giving them
immediate access to the widest array of
contributors. Over the last 10 years Juan has
developed a level of expertise in the areas of
product development, strategic marketing and
software integration that have produced industry
leading technologies and best practices in the
fields of database marketing, e-mail delivery
technologies and one-to-one communications
tactics for GOTV and fundraising efforts.
Juan¹s extensive work with Plus Three
customers, the Democratic National Committee
(DNC), Democratic Senatorial Campaign
Committee, John Kerry for President and the
AFL-CIO has established him as an expert in
online fundraising, constituency management
and the political landscape. His leadership was
instrumental to the creation of the DNC Demzilla
database that enabled the Democrats to raise over
$85 online in 2004 and match the Republican
National Committee’s fundraising efforts for the
first time. Juan frequently shares his expertise in
using the Internet to drive voter turnout at
national events, such as the Democratic National
Convention and the DNC
24
Latino Leadership Conference and in national the largest business association (US Chamber)
publications like TIME magazine. and over 100 GOP Members of Congress.

In addition, Juan has developed strategic and
technological solutions for the financial,
publishing, telecommunications and
pharmaceuticals industries that set the standard
in the areas of data management and customer
communications. Successful software solutions
implemented under Juan’s leadership include
Capital One, Barclays Global Investments, MCI
WorldCom,
AT&T, Glaxo Smith Kline, The Washington
Post, IBM, World Wildlife Fund, Disney, Time,
Newsweek, Planned Parenthood, Green Peace,
Ocean Conservancy and The National Resource
Defense Fund.
LARRY PURPURO - Rightclick Strategies
He is a graduate of Drew University and
received his Juris Doctorate degree from Seton
Hall University Law School.
ARI RABIN-HAVT - Internet
Communications Director, Kerry-Edwards
2004
Ari Rabin-Havt currently serves as Director of
Internet Comuncation for the Senate Democratic
Leader. Previously Rabin-Havt worked on the
Internet team at John Kerry’s Presidential
campaign, as Executive Director of Click Back
America, doing market research and polling at
Penn Schoen and Berland Associated and in
Representative Ted Strickland’s (OH-6) office.

Larry Purpuro is nationally recognized as one of

the leading experts in the field of cyber
GRANT REEHER - Associate Professor of
advocacy. As a Web strategist, he has
Political Science, Syracuse University
successfully leveraged the Web as a tool for
political activism in online advocacy projects.
Grant Reeher is Associate Professor of Political
Science and Senior Research Associate at the
Mr. Purpuro has spent more than 20 years
Center for Policy Research, both at Syracuse
working in the political arena, providing
University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and
communications consulting and management
Public Affairs. He is also adjunct faculty at the
services to over 150 federal and state candidates.
Federal Executive Institute, the U. S.
Purpuro has served as chief of staff for a US
Government’s premier institution for
Senator, communications director for the NRCC
professional development. In addition, during
and deputy chief of staff for the Republican
2004-2005 he is a Visiting Senior Research
National Committee (RNC).
Fellow at The George Washington University’s
Institute for Politics, Democracy, & the Internet.
Before founding Rightclick Strategies, he
launched one of the country’s most innovative
His research and teaching interests are primarily
Web programs for the RNC. As the RNC’s
in American politics and political theory. He is
deputy chief of staff, Larry directed the national
the author of First Person Political: Legislative
party’s “ e.GOP Project,” which was credited by
Life and the Meaning of Public Service (2005);
US News & World Report as being a key factor
Narratives of Justice: Legislators’ Beliefs about
in Bush’s 2000 election victory.
Distributive Fairness (1996), co-author of Click
on Democracy: The Internet’s Power to Change
Mr. Purpuro’s work in the field of Internet
Political Apathy into Civic Action (2002) and
politics has garnered him extensive press
co-editor of Education for Citizenship (1997)
coverage in TheIndustry Standard, Wired,
and The Insider’s Guide to Political Internships
Investor’s Daily, Wall Street Journal, Forbes,
(2002).
Washington Post, CNN and USA Today. An
adjunct professor at GWU’s Graduate School of
His academic journal publications include pieces
Political Management, he is a frequent lecturer
in Health Affairs; Journal of Health Politics,
on Internet advocacy at colleges across the
Policy and Law; The Responsive Community;
country.
Polity; and PS: Political Science and Politics. He
has also published many editorial essays on
Rightclick Strategies’ clients include the largest
various political topics, including pieces in The
member based association in America (AARP),

25
New York Times, The Ottawa Citizen, Newsday,
The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Milwaukee
Journal-Sentinel and pieces that have been
distributed through Knight-Ridder.
He has been quoted in many published stories,
including pieces appearing in USA Today, The
Los Angeles Times, Salon, Newsday and The
Detroit News.
He is a former chair of the American Political
Science Association’s Organized Section on
Undergraduate Education and a former Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation Scholar in Health
Policy Research at the University of Michigan.
He is a 1982 graduate of Dartmouth College and
earned his Ph.D. in 1992 from Yale University.
In 1993, his Ph.D. dissertation was awarded the
William Anderson Prize by the American
Political Science Association. His community
activities include ongoing sponsorship of
Syracuse’s Inner City Little League and service
as Corporate Secretary for The Social Capital
Development Corporation, a non-profit
organization based in Albany, New York.
BRIAN REICH - Strategic Consultant,
Mindshare
Brian runs the Boston office for Mindshare
Interactive Campaigns and coordinates the
company’s efforts in the Northeast.
Brian has spent much of his life working with
campaigns and political organizations. He has
helped direct dozens of campaigns across the
country ranging from student elections in
Michigan to local initiatives and statewide
campaigns in Seattle. During the 1996 cycle,
Brian was the youngest campaign manager in the
nation, leading a U.S. Congress challenger-race
in Connecticut. Prior to joining Mindshare, Brian
served as Vice President Gore’s Briefing
Director, both in the White House and during his
2000 presidential campaign.
Brian is a regular writer and speaker on the
issues involving the impact of the Internet on
politics. He is the editor of Campaign Web
Review (www.campaignWebreview.com): a
blog examining the use of the Internet by
candidates, campaigns and organizations,
activists and the media. He writes a weekly
column for National Journal’s The Hotline and is
a contributing editor to Personal Democracy
Forum (www.personaldemocracy.com). He was
credentialed to blog the Democratic and
Republican Conventions, as well as the
Presidential Debates. And, Brian delivered the
keynote address at the Online Social Networking
Conference in 2005 and is currently writing
“New Rules for Radical Communication”
(working title), an update of Saul Alinsky’s
Rules for Radicals for the Internet age. Brian
attended the University of Michigan and is a
graduate of Columbia University. He and his
wife, Karen Dahl, live in Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
ZACH ROSEN - Founder and Director,
CivicSpace Labs
Zack Rosen is the founder and director of
CivicSpace Labs, a non-profit tech shop building
open-source civic engagement, participation and
organizing tools. He kicked off the “DeanSpace”
volunteer open-source development project for
the Dean campaign last year during his summer
break from the University of Illinois. He then
took a job at the Dean campaign headquarters to
work as a Web developer and technical volunteer
coordinator. He was responsible for servicing the
Web-technology needs of the state campaign
offices, constituency groups and grassroots Web
developers. After the campaign ended he moved
out to San Francisco and received funding to
continue the project on and create CivicSpace.
JOSH ROSS - Director, Internet Strategy,
Kerry-Edwards 2004
Josh Ross most recently served a Director of
Internet Strategy for Kerry-Edwards 2004.
There he supervised all online activities
including fundraising, advocacy,
communications and field support. Before
joining the campaign, Josh worked as a
technology executive in Silicon Valley. He has
served as COO of V2 Group, Vice President of
USWeb Corp. and CEO of NetWORKERS. Josh
is currently President of Mayfield Strategy
Group, a California and Washington D.C. based
consulting firm.
26
PATRICK RUFFINI - Webmaster, Bush-
Cheney ‘04
Ruffini was Webmaster for the Bush-Cheney ‘04
presidential campaign, where he was responsible
for day-to-day Web site operations, designing
creatives to crisply communicate the President’s
message and developing special features
surrounding major events like the Conventions
and Presidential debates. Ruffini also designed
and served as chief writer for the campaign’s
official blog and managed the campaign’s
outreach to the blog community.
Prior to arriving at the campaign, Ruffini
maintained a political blog which launched in
July 2001, back when such sites were still known
as “me-zines.” His commentary has appeared on
Web sites ranging from National Review Online
to FoxNews.com.
Ruffini graduated magna cum laude from the
University of Pennsylvania in 2000 with a B.A.
in Diplomatic History and Political Science.
FRANCIS SCHILLER - Owner/Publisher of
politicswatch.com
Frank has 15 years experience working in
Canadian politics and government. Since 1990,
Francis has worked on staff for some of
Canada’s leading federal politicians, including
the Right Hon. Jean Chrétien, the Right Hon.
Herb Gray and the Hon. Jim Peterson. Francis
also served as a key member of election
readiness units, instrumental in the election of
Liberal majority governments in 1993 and
1997. Since 1996, he has operated his own
research and communications enterprise, which
owns PoliticsWatch.com, as well as having
holdings in the Industry Government Relations
Group, a leading government relations firm in
Ottawa. Francis currently services a diverse
client base across industrial sectors and public
policy areas, including marine and aviation
transportation, forestry and international trade,
information technology and online news
services, retail, intellectual property regulations
and more.
Francis was a British Chevening Scholar and
graduated from the London School of Economics
with a Master of Science in Comparative Politics
(1996) and received a Bachelor of Arts, High
Honours in Philosophy and Political Science
from Carleton University, Ottawa (1992).
JONAH SEIGER - Founder, Connections
Media LLC
Jonah Seiger is one of the country’s most
recognized political and public affairs Internet
strategists. For over a decade, Seiger has led
winning Internet-centered communications
programs for some of America’s most influential
associations, issue groups, candidates and
Fortune 500 companies.
At Connections Media, Seiger and his
professional team provide strategic counsel,
integrated cross-media planning and placement,
customized technology development and graphic
design services to select political and public
affairs campaigns.
Seiger serves as the Chairman of the Board of
the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the
Internet at The George Washington University
and is a member of the Board of the New
Democrat Network and the Media Access
Project. Seiger is also a member of the adjunct
faculty at The George Washington University
Graduate School of Political Management.
Seiger has deep roots in the Internet world. In
1997 Seiger co-founded Mindshare Internet
Campaigns, LLC and built the company into one
of the country’s leading providers of Internet
services for public affairs. Seiger previously
worked on Internet-related policy issues with the
Electronic Frontier Foundation and with
Congressman Edward J. Markey (D-MA) on the
House Subcommittee for Telecommunications
and Finance from 1993 to 1994. In 1994, he
helped found and served as Communications
Director for the Center for Democracy and
Technology (CDT), a leading non-profit
organization focusing on civil liberties and
democratic values online. While at CDT, The
New York Times described him as “a trench
warrior in the battle to democratize cyberspace,”
in reference to his role in the landmark Supreme
Court case establishing broad First Amendment
protection for the Internet.
A native of Palo Alto, California, Seiger holds a
B.A. in psychology and religion from the
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He currently
resides in Washington DC.
27

PHIL SHELDON - Media Director,
RightMarch.com
Phil Sheldon is the Media Director at
RightMarch.com, an umbrella site of many
conservative organizations coming together to
enable their members to take effective action
against activities by online liberal groups. Phil is
also president of Response Enterprises (2001-
present); president (1983-present), Diener
Consultants; president (1988-present),
Pennsylvania Republican Assembly; alternative
delegate (1996), Republican National
Convention; B.A. (1983), Johns Hopkins
University.
MICHAEL SILBERMAN - Vice President of
Online Organizing, EchoDitto
Michael Silberman serves as VP for Online
Organizing at EchoDitto (www.echoditto.com), a
progressive Internet strategy firm in Washington,
DC that he co-founded with other core members
of Howard Dean’s Internet team. As the National
Meetup Director for Dean’s presidential
campaign, Michael managed grassroots field
organizing and leadership development programs
for Dean’s activist base. He oversaw the
successful growth of Dean’s monthly “meetup”
program in 1,200 neighborhoods worldwide and
developed a multi-faceted online
communications and organizing strategy that
kept over 2,000 grassroots leaders and 189,000
supporters engaged and connected to the national
campaign. Prior to joining the Dean campaign,
Michael gained valuable organizing and political
experience at the Union of Concerned Scientists
(UCS) and in the Clinton White House at the
Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ).
RAVI SINGH - CEO ElectionMall
Technologies, Inc.
An Internet pioneer, Ravi Singh was politically
savvy at an early age. At 25, Ravi’s passion for
politics became obvious when he ran for public
office as the first Asian American for the 42nd
District Illinois General Assembly. During his
1997 campaign, he made history by launching
the first “online chat - town hall meeting” and
www.ravisingh.com
Prior to his run for public office, Ravi worked as
an administrative assistant for the Illinois Lt.
Governor and State Treasurer. In 1995, Ravi
taught citizens at the Illinois State Fair “how to
use the Internet and surf Yahoo!™.” In 1997, he
was promoted to Director of Community
Relations for the State Treasurer. During this
time, he was asked to serve on Bob Dole’s
National Asian American Planning Committee
collecting “Internet e-mail addresses” for the
1996 Presidential Election.
In 1999, Ravi founded a first political vortal on
the Web, electionmall.com. In 2000, he filed for
international patents related to online fundraising
and political e-mails, eYardsigns™ under
ElectionMall.com, also known as Election Mall
Technologies (EMT). EMT is a non-partisan
company that offers campaign technology
services via the World Wide Web. EMT has
advised and assisted several campaigns including
the 2000 presidential campaign for George W.
Bush and has sent e-mails for members of the
Democratic National Committee. EMT won the
prestigious “Pollie Award” for technology in
2002 from the American Association of Political
Consultants (AAPC) with strategic partner
Chicago Kent College of Law for the online
project “electionelaw.com.”
In 2004, he made history launching
electionmall.tv, a live daily broadcast of
animated campaign and election coverage that
was displayed on CNN internationally and PC
Magazine.
Ravi has lectured on online politics and been a
guest on MSNBC™ “Power Lunch Asia.”
Recently he was featured in an article for USA
Weekend magazine in which he was named one
of the “five new powerbrokers whose sites and
bytes may well influence how you cast your
ballot come November.” Ravi is an active
member in the IAPC (international), EAPC
(European) and AAPC (American) political
associations. Ravi Singh is currently the CEO of
Election Mall Technologies which has offices in
Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, DC.
Ravi graduated as a United States 2nd Lieutenant
from Marmion Military Academy and has a
Bachelors of Science from Valparaiso
University. He has a Masters degree in Political
Science from Northwestern University. Ravi
Singh has authored two books
28
LeadershipByTurban.com and 101 Secrets on
Winning Political Campaigns Online both
available on Amazon.com. Currently Ravi Singh
resides in Los Angeles and Washington DC.
CLIFF SLOAN - VP, Business Affairs &
General Counsel, Washington Post Newsweek
Interactive
Clifford M. Sloan is Vice President, Business
Development and General Counsel of
Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, The
Washington Post Company’s Internet and new
media subsidiary. Washingtonpost.Newsweek
Interactive publishes washingtonpost.com and
Newsweek.com. Mr. Sloan oversees all legal
matters and business development for the
company. He has served in various government
positions, including Associate Counsel to the
President of the United States (1993-95),
Assistant to the Solicitor General at the U.S.
Department of Justice (1989-91), Associate
Counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel
(Iran-Contra) (1987-88) and Law Clerk to
Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens and
U.S. Court of Appeals Judge J. Skelly Wright.
Mr. Sloan also has taught the law of cyberspace
as an adjunct professor at Georgetown
University Law Center, The George Washington
University Law School and American
University’s Washington College of Law.
BRADLEY SMITH - Commissioner, Federal
Election Commission
Bradley Smith was appointed to a Republican
seat on the Federal Election Commission in 2000
by President Clinton and served as Commission
Chairman in 2004. One of the nation’s leading
experts on campaign finance law, constitutional
protection of political speech and the effect of
money in politics, Smith is the author of Unfree
Speech: The Folly of Campaign Finance Reform,
published by Princeton University Press in
2001. An academic best-seller, Unfree Speech
was released in paperback in 2003. His articles
have appeared in such academic journals as the
Yale Law Journal, Georgetown Law Journal,
Pennsylvania Law Review, Harvard Journal of
Legislation and the Cornell Journal of Law and
Public Policy, and in popular journals such as the
Wall Street Journal, USA Today, National
Review and Commentary. In 1999, the Brennan
Center for Justice called him, “the most sought
after witness in Congress” when the subject is
campaign finance. His work has been cited both
in briefs to and opinions by the Supreme Court.
As Chairman of the FEC, Smith was praised by
Roll Call as “an honest man” and by the Wall
Street Journal as, “about the only honorable man
in this political bordello [the campaign finance
reform debates].”
Commissioner Smith is a member of the
Advisory Board to the American Bar Association
Standing Committee on Election Law, the Board
of Advisors of the Harvard Journal of Law and
Public Policy and the Editorial Advisory Board
of the Election Law Journal. While serving as a
Commissioner, Smith has been on leave from his
position as Professor of Law at Capital
University in Columbus, Ohio. He has also
taught at George Mason University School of
Law and has lectured at nearly 50 law schools,
including Yale, Columbia, Michigan, Chicago,
Stanford, NYU and his alma mater, Harvard Law
School, where he was recognized as a Traphagen
Distinguished Alumnus. A native of the Detroit
area, Commissioner Smith received his B.A. in
Political Science from Kalamazoo College in
Kalamazoo, Michigan and holds an honorary
doctorate in Humane Letters from Augustana
(Ill.) College.
GREGG SPIRIDELLIS - Co-Founder, JibJab
Media
Gregg Spiridellis co-founded JibJab Media Inc.
with his brother Evan in 1999 to create and
distribute original entertainment to a worldwide
audience using the Internet. Since then, he has
developed a reputation as a pioneer in digital
entertainment, leveraging new technologies to
produce innovative and compelling JibJab
branded content to a worldwide audience.
In addition to his business duties, Gregg is also
JibJab’s writer. In 2004, his lyrics helped spark
an international sensation with the release of
JibJab’s election parody, ‘This Land’. ”This
Land” and its follow up, ‘Good To Be in DC!’
were viewed over eighty million times online on
every continent, including Antarctica.
JibJab’s productions have screened at the top
industry festivals including Sundance, the Palm
Springs International Film Festival, SXSW and
many others. They have also won awards at the
29
Ottawa International Film Festival, the Cannes
Lions International Advertising Festival and
D&AD. Gregg has assembled a client list that
includes the world’s biggest entertainment and
consumer product companies including Disney,
Cartoon Network, USA Networks, Sony, Kraft,
Revlon and many others.
Prior to JibJab, Gregg worked as an investment
banker with Bear Stearns and Goldman Sachs in
New York City. He graduated with distinction
from the MBA program at The Wharton School
of Business in 1999 and received his BS, magna
cum laude, from Rutgers University.
ANDREW STOCKING - VP, Business
Development, Care2.com
Andrew Stocking is the Vice President of
Business Development at Care2.com
(www.Care2.com). Andrew joined Care2 five
years ago and has since played an active role in
strategic planning, developing new online
organizing tools and building partnerships with
nonprofit organizations. Today Care2 is the
largest online progressive network, bringing
together consumers, non-profit organizations and
socially responsible businesses. With more than
3 million members and activists, Care2.com is
the premier site on the Internet for people who
care to help environmental and social causes and
lead a healthier lifestyle. As a result, most of the
nation’s large nonprofit organizations turn to the
Care2 audience to recruit new activists, increase
the volume of letters they can generate to policy
makers and educate/engage a large community.
In addition, Care2 just launched Care2 Connect:
a large progressive social networking tool for
nonprofits and affinity groups. Andrew leads
Care2’s business development team and
campaign team, which specialize in online
activism, environmental education, election
turnout and education and fundraising.
Prior to joining Care2 Andrew worked as an
environmental engineer at the consulting firm
Malcolm Pirnie and an analyst for The Mellman
Group. Andrew has an MS in Civil and
Environmental Engineering and a BS in
Chemical Engineering, both from Stanford
University.
ROB STUART - Senior Vice President,
Strategic Relations
Rob Stuart is the Senior Vice President of
@DVOCACY, INC. and the President of the E-
Volve Foundation, the company’s philanthropic
arm. Rob is a senior Internet media advisor and
strategist for numerous political and advocacy
organization.
Dedicated to building the achievement capacity
of nonprofit organizations, over the last ten
years, Rob has worked in the Philanthropic
sector, establishing programs to increase
organizational effectiveness through the strategic
use of technology.
A resident of Philadelphia, Rob helped
spearheaded the establishment of NPower PA
and now serves as its Board President. A
national leader in the non-profit technology
sector, Rob was the Founder and President of
TechRocks, a supporting organization to the
Rockefeller Family Fund, which pioneered the
use of the Internet for advocacy campaigns and
software tools for e-organizing. Rob founded
TechRocks (formerly the Rockefeller
Technology Project) while serving as a Program
Associate at the Rockefeller Family Fund (RFF)
in 1996. At the same time, he was one of the
founders of the Grantmakers for Effective
Organizations (GEO) and spearheaded the
National Strategy for Nonprofit Technology
(NSNT).
He serves on the Board of the GreenMedia
Toolshed, PennEnvironment and as Chair of
Taxpayers for Common Sense. Prior to joining
RFF, Rob had a career as a public interest
advocate and led successful campaigns for
several landmark pieces of environmental and
consumer protection legislation in New Jersey.
Rob was a Paul Robeson Scholar at Livingston
College and graduated with Honors in Political
Science from Rutgers University.
ALEX TREADWAY - Senior Associate
Director, National Journal Group, Inc.
Alex Treadway heads online advertising for
NationalJournal.com. Voted the number one
news site by political journalists in the 2002
Institute for Politics Democracy & the Internet’s
The Virtual Trail: NationalJournal.com is one of
the leading Web sites for people with a
professional interest in politics, policy and
government. For the past six years Treadway has
30
been working with corporate and advocacy
advertisers and their ad agencies to successfully
implement inside Washington, DC
communications goals via online advertising.
Treadway has been speaking about online
advertising since 1999 and has participated in
several Politics Online Conferences and E-Voter
Institute seminars. Treadway has been quoted in
numerous publications about the use of online
advertising as a medium for political and
advocacy communication.
Treadway has been marketing online products
and services for years. Prior to working with the
National Journal Group, his experience includes
marketing federal and state legislative
intelligence services for LEGI-SLATE, Inc
(formerly a subsidiary of the Washington Post
Company) and online banking services with First
Union National Bank.
Treadway earned a B.A. in Political Science with
a minor in English, History and Speech from
Louisiana State University. He currently resides
in Alexandria with his wife Cecily and daughters
Helen and Louisa.
JOE TRIPPI - Former Campaign Manager,
Dean For America
Joe Trippi: heralded on the cover of The New
Republic as the man who “reinvent[ed]
campaigning”, was born in California and began
his political career working on Edward M.
Kennedy’s presidential campaign in 1980. His
work in presidential politics continued with the
campaigns of Walter Mondale, Gary Hart,
Richard Gephardt and Howard Dean.
As a campaign manager, Trippi has run
presidential, Senate, gubernatorial and mayoral
campaigns. He was selected by former Vice
President Walter Mondale to manage Iowa’s
first-in-the-nation caucuses in 1984 and later
went on to run several key states for the Mondale
for President campaign. In 1988, Trippi was the
Deputy National Campaign Manager for Richard
Gephardt’s presidential campaign.
In 2004, he was National Campaign Manager for
Howard Dean’s presidential campaign,
pioneering the use of online technology to
organize what became the largest grassroots
movement in presidential politics. Through
Trippi’s innovative use of the Internet for small-
donor fundraising, Dean for America ended up
raising more money than any Democratic
presidential campaign in history, all with
donations averaging less than $100 each.
Trippi’s innovations have brought fundamental
change to the political system and will be the
model for how all future campaigns will be run.
Trippi began his work in media consulting at the
Democratic media firm of Doak, Shrum and
Associates, where he was involved in developing
the strategy and producing the media for the
successful campaigns of Jerry Baliles for
governor of Virginia and Bob Casey for
governor of Pennsylvania. Trippi was also
instrumental in the re-election campaigns of U.S.
Senator Alan Cranston of California and Mayor
Tom Bradley of Los Angeles. In 1990, he was a
founding member of the media firm Trippi,
McMahon and Squier.
MICHAEL TURK - eCampaign Director,
Republican National Committee, previously
eCampaign Director, Bush-Cheney 04
As eCamapign Director for the Republican
National Committee, Michael Turk oversees the
Internet Operations for the Republican
Party. Prior to his position at the Committee,
Turk was the eCampaign Director for Bush-
Cheney 04 and oversaw the most sophisticated
online campaign in history, marshalling the
resources of 7.5 million Internet activists to
communicate the President’s message and turn
out the largest vote for President in generations.
Turk has spent more than 10 years in politics and
technology crossing from the political, to the
commercial and into government. beginning in
1994 with the creation of one of the first state
party Web sites on the Internet. He has served as
the e-Government Portfolio Manager for
Government to Citizen projects at the Office of
Management and Budget and as a technology
and activism consultant to Grassroots Enterprise:
an Internet focused public affairs firm.
ANNIE WEBER - Senior Vice President,
Roper Public Affairs & Media
Annie Weber is a Senior Vice President and
Director of the Roper Public Affairs office in
31
Washington DC. Annie specializes in public
opinion polls, strategic communications and
market research. Since joining Roper in 1999,
she has worked on a wide variety of projects
including public release and strategic
communication research investigating public
understanding of a range of topics from learning
disabilities, health literacy and service learning
to organic foods and farming practices; New
York Times Digital study on Influentials®
AARP’s multicultural studies about work and
working past traditional retirement age;
Bankrate.com’s tracking of American’s financial
literacy; Randstad North America’s ongoing
research program investigating work attitudes
and experiences among the North American
labor pool;
People magazine’s study of women, word of
mouth and product recommendations; Money
magazine’s study of affluent Americans & Their
Money; the Fast Company-Roper Surveys on
work/life balance.
Annie came to Roper from the CBS News
Election & Survey Unit, where she assisted in
the writing, fielding and reporting of national
public opinion surveys for the joint CBS
News/New York Times Poll. Prior to joining
CBS, Annie was a Research Assistant in the
Social and Behavioral Unit in the Department of
Communication at Cornell University.
Before pursuing a career in opinion and
marketing research, Annie was an instructor in
Broadcasting and Journalism at the Art Institute
in Fort Lauderdale and an award-winning
investigative reporter for KMIZ-TV in
Columbia, Missouri.
Annie is currently working on her Ph.D. in
Communication at Cornell University. She has a
Master of Science with Distinction in Broadcast
Journalism, as well as a B.S. in Radio,
Television and Film from Northwestern
University.
Annie is a past Treasurer for the New York
chapter of the American Association for Public
Opinion Research (AAPOR).
RICK WHITE - President and CEO, TechNet
Rick White is President and CEO of TechNet,
the leading public policy and political service
organization for the Innovation Economy. Prior
to joining TechNet, Rick White was a partner in
the Perkins Coie law firm in Seattle, where he
practiced in the electronic commerce group.
White also served as the U.S. Representative
from the First District of Washington State from
1995-1999. As a member of Congress, White
served on the House Commerce Committee and
was assigned to subcommittees on
Telecommunications, Trade, Finance and
Energy. In 1995, as the founder of the
Congressional Internet Caucus, White gained
national attention through his work on the
Internet and high-technology issues. He was one
of a handful of members selected to serve on the
conference committee that developed the final
Telecommunications Act of 1996.
Rick White is a member of the Markle
Foundation’s Task Force on National Security in
the Information Age and serves on the Council
of American Politics at the Graduate School of
Political Management of George Washington
University.
DAVID WICKENDEN - Senior Vice
President and Senior Partner, Fleishman-
Hillard
David Wickenden is a senior partner with
Fleishman-Hillard directing the firm’s
Interactive Practice Group. Mr. Wickenden is
responsible for the strategic development of
Internet-based and new media communications
services worldwide. He also serves as senior
counselor and strategist for clients in the areas of
corporate reputation, branding, positioning and
strategic planning.
Mr. Wickenden has more than 18 years’
experience in designing, managing and
implementing large-scale integrated strategic
communications programs. He has led numerous
corporate-positioning programs for organizations
including Sprint, PBS, Bell Atlantic (Verizon),
AARP and America Online, where he led an
agency team in developing a wide-ranging
corporate brand and reputation program from
1995 – 2000. As a result of his work in helping
to establish and develop programs for the AOL
Foundation, Fleishman-Hillard received a PRSA
Silver Anvil Award for outstanding achievement
in the nonprofit sector.
32
Mr. Wickenden has led agency teams in the
creation and implementation of several consumer
behavior-change and public education programs,
including MasterCard (combating credit card
fraud) and the Vision Council of America
(proper eye care for children), both of which also
won Silver Anvil Awards.
An accomplished seminar leader, Mr.
Wickenden conducts workshops in the area of
strategic communications and serves as an
adjunct professor of branding and new media
marketing for the M.B.A. program at The
George Washington University in Washington,
D.C. Mr. Wickenden was the lead author and
project director of the book, We’ve Got Light!, a
history of the building of the nation’s first coast-
to-coast fiber-optic network.
Mr. Wickenden is a graduate of Kenyon College,
Gambier, OH, with a Bachelor of Arts in English
(cum laude, graduating with distinction).
CHRISTINE WILLIAMS - Professor of
Government, Bentley College
Christine Williams is a published scholar whose
research explores the role and impact of the
Internet on American politics. A grant from the
Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics
and Public Policy supported her studies of the e-
campaign for U.S. Senate, which appeared in the
Journal of Political Marketing. Other work
includes a comparative study of Web based issue
advocacy by corporations and nonprofits and an
analysis of corporate Web site response to
September 11th. Currently, she is conducting
national surveys to understand Meetup as a
political organizing tool in the 2004 presidential
election (http://www.MeetupSurvey.com). Her
report on that research appeared in the July issue
of Campaigns & Elections.
During academic year 2004-5 Dr. Williams will
be a visiting fellow at the Institute for Politics,
Democracy & the Internet at The George
Washington University. She serves on the
editorial board of the Journal of E-Government
and has been a peer reviewer for the Social
Science Computer Review and the Journal of
Political Marketing, among others.
Interviews by Dr. Williams have appeared in
national and regional media outlets. Print media
credits include USA Today, The Nation, The
Chronicle of Philanthropy, Federal Computer
Week, TheBoston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer,
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle and Hartford
Courant. CNN and New England Cable News
(NECN) have run stories about her current
Meetup research and she has been a guest on
programs for Wisconsin public radio and
Denver’s KHOW. Electronic media citations
include CBS MarketWatch, PoliticsOnline and
AlterNet.
A Professor of Government at Bentley College
since 1986, Dr. Williams teaches a course on
Media and Politics. She holds a B.A. from
Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) and her M.A.
and Ph.D from Indiana University. Dr. Williams
currently resides in Chelmsford, MA.
ANN YODERS - Founder & CEO, The Bronx
Cash Register Consulting Company
Ann E. Yoders is the CEO and Founder of Bronx
Cash Register Consulting Company
(www.bronxconsulting.com). Bronx Consulting
is an innovative new progressive strategy firm
based on socially-responsible business practices.
Recently Bronx Consulting organized the 2004
Roundtable on Progressive Politics and
Technology, bringing together influentials in
progressive politics to talk about ways to move
the progressive agenda forward with the use of
technology. Early next year, Bronx Consulting
will spearhead an effort entitled The Progressive
Project that will look at innovative ways to
support technology and online engagement
efforts for progressives.
Prior to the starting Bronx Consulting, Ann
worked for the Carol/Trevelyan Strategy Group
(www.ctsg.com): the company responsible for
the first campaign Web site (Diane Fienstein in
1994). With CTSG, Ann worked as Founder and
Partner Dan Carol’s chief assistant on strategy
and online engagement. Ann consulted for such
clients as The Turner Foundation, former Oregon
Governor John Kitzhaber, Global AIDS
Alliance, Union of Concerned Scientists, Jim
Hightower, the Progressive Government Institute
and many others.
Ann has over 10 years of experience working
with non-profit, political organizations and
campaigns. She started her professional career in
1994 as a National Intern for Project Vote Smart.
Soon after her internship she was hired as the
33
Director of Project Vote Smart’s National (www.vote-smart.org), the nationally-
Internship Program. Ann lead 60 interns in recognized, award-winning clearinghouse on
building from scratch the Vote Smart Web non-partisan, political information.

34
Grassroots Advocacy and
The Internet
New Online Tools Transform How
Nonprofits Reach, Motivate and Retain
Advocates
The primary goal of advocacy is to drive positive
change in support of an organization’s mission.
This change may involve impacting legislation,
securing funding or affecting a corporate policy.
Grassroots advocacy involves influencing large
groups of people to agree with an opinion or
objective and getting them to help influence policy
makers through media coverage, personal contact,
phone calls and letters.
The Internet—specifically the advent of
online advocacy and constituent
relationship management tools—has had
a profound impact on grassroots
advocacy. In 2001, 42 million
Americans used the Internet to research
public policy issues;1 23 million sent
comments to public officials about
policy choices; and 13 million 2. Increased response rates
participated in an online lobbying
campaign. Key developments include:
1. Easy, low cost mobilization
through e-mail
E-mail has enabled advocacy
groups to mobilize constituents
very quickly and cost-
effectively. Organizations, such
as the American Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
1
The Rise of the E-Citizen: How People Use
Government Agencies’ Web Sites, Pew Internet
and American Life Project, 3 March 2002.
Vinay Bhagat
Vinay Bhagat is the
founder, Chief Strategy
Officer and chairman of
Austin-based Convio,
Inc.
(ASPCA), that used to send
letters to advocates have moved
to a completely e-mail-based
mobilization approach. Newer
cause-driven groups have started
their advocacy programs with an
online-only approach.
through easy response
mechanisms and
personalization
Online response forms on Web
sites recognize returning
advocates, pre-fill their personal
information and map legislative
targets based upon each
constituent’s ZIP code. These
forms allow a constituent to
personalize the message and can
automate message delivery via e-
mail or fax. Targeting messages
by geography generates higher
35
2005 Politics Online Conference – Grassroots Advocacy and the Internet
response rates. Mothers Against
Drunk Driving ran a test sending
a generic e-mail appeal to one
group of constituents and a
personalized appeal with a
specific state grade for drunk
driving regulation to another
Fig 1. Personalization of advocacy appeal by recipient’s state
group. The personalized message
achieved a 155 percent higher
response rate.
3. Increased message delivery
rate through multiple channels
With advanced tools such as
Convio, an organization can send
messages via e-mail, fax, mail or
Web form submission on a
legislator’s Web site. Multi-
channel message delivery options
increase the message delivery
rate. Increasingly, legislative
offices are moving away from
accepting e-mails and requiring
submission of information
through Web forms. Today’s
leading Internet tools enable
automatic posting of advocate
messages on these Web forms.
4. Reach more activists
Advocacy campaigns are “viral”
by nature, spreading from person
to person. The Internet makes it
significantly easier for activists
to forward messages to others.
5. Improved tracking
Traditionally, tracking the
number of people taking action
in a grassroots campaign has
been difficult. It has also been
almost impossible to know who
specifically takes action, which is
key for identifying the best
36
2005 Politics Online Conference – Grassroots Advocacy and the Internet
activists. Tracking both total and
individual response is much
easier with new online tools.
6. Better relationships, stronger
loyalty
The Internet makes it easier for
an organization to keep
advocates apprised of the impacts
of their lobbying efforts. It is
very easy and cost-effective to
send a targeted e-mail to people
who have taken action.
7. Integrated approach to
managing constituent
relationships
Integrated tools like Convio
enable a more congruent
approach to managing
relationships with new
subscribers, volunteers, clients,
donors, advocates and the media.
For example, an organization can
reach out to a constituent who is
a donor but not yet an activist,
“inviting” him to join the
advocacy network
Fig. 2 – Example of profile-based relationship management by the ASPCA
The Importance of Online
Advocacy for Fundraisers
Advocacy can play a strong role in
supporting other areas of nonprofit
operations, in particular, fundraising. A
grassroots advocacy program can:
1. Develop strong prospects for
participation in other activities
A grassroots advocacy program
can be a great source of prospects
for fundraising, volunteering,
event participation and more. By
advocating, a person shows
interest and support. Advocates
frequently are more receptive to
additional requests for support
(e.g., fundraising appeals) than
“cold prospects.”
In a recent campaign, the Million
Mom March United with the
Brady Campaign to End Gun
Violence found that e-advocates
(people who had signed an online
petition) responded to two
consecutive -email fundraising
solicitations at a rate of
approximately three percent.2 In
contrast, a reasonable response
rate for a direct mail donor
acquisition campaign using
rented lists is one percent. At
this response rate, it costs $1.15-
1.50 to raise a dollar. However,
using a grassroots advocacy
campaign to develop a prospect
2
Brady Campaign/Million Mom March, Convio
client data analysis.
37
2005 Politics Online Conference – Grassroots Advocacy and the Internet
list then converting that list
through mail drives down the
cost per dollar raised to $0.38-
0.50. Converting some or all of
the prospects via e-mail instead
yields an even greater cost
reduction.
An organization can use online
grassroots advocacy campaigns
to build large prospect lists.
Advocacy campaigns are “viral”
by nature—advocates generally
Fig. 3 – Million Mom March/ Brady Campaign petition initiative
forward messages to friends.
The Million Mom March/Brady
Campaign asked people to sign a
petition and then forward a
message to 10 others (see fig. 3).
In just two months, the group
nearly tripled its email list from
39,000 to 117,000 constituents.
(see fig. 4).
Many groups, however, must
overcome philosophical barriers.
Fundraising and advocacy
functions historically have been
hesitant to share lists, fearing that
advocates would be turned off by
being asked for money and
donors would be turned off by
being asked to advocate.
Convio’s work with advocacy
groups suggests this is not the
case. We have seldom seen
alienation of advocates when
asked to donate, or alienation of
donors when offered the
opportunity to advocate. Case-
in-point: when a national
women’s advocacy group made
an e-mail-based fundraising
appeal to activists and non-
activists (e-mail newsletter
38
2005 Politics Online Conference – Grassroots Advocacy and the Internet

subscribers), the activists supports retention. Advocacy

responded at a 15 percent higher can be a great way to get
rate than non-activists, and very supporters more involved; most
few activists unsubscribed (a donors can and will only give
measure of alienation).3 Another one to two times a year, but they
example: 50 percent of new can advocate for an organization
online donors were initially multiple times a year.

140,000
120,000
100,000
Email File

80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
0
10/1/03

10/8/03

11/5/03
10/15/03

10/22/03

10/29/03

11/12/03

11/19/03

11/26/03
Fig. 4 – Growth in e-mail list during petition campaign
advocates who converted to
donor advocates4. Furthermore, 3. Reinforce the organization’s
many nonprofit groups seek to brand
reach younger donors. Branding is an important factor
Advocacy, by its nature, often in driving donor preference.5
attracts younger constituents Older constituents, in particular,
who, over time, can become are influenced by brand.6 An
good prospects for development, organization can build its brand
volunteering and more. through grassroots campaigns
that reach many people,
2. Grow donor/member loyalty including prospective and current
Nonprofits struggle with donors and the media. Such
retention. Donors/members have contact helps increase awareness
many groups to choose from and
contribute more to those with 5
whom they have the strongest Michael Birkin, Non-Profit Brands: Friend or
Foe?, OnPhilanthropy.com newsletter, 7
affinity. Any tactic that builds February 2003.
involvement or affinity also 6
Sarah Durst, Target Analysis Group –
Benchmarking Trends in Nonprofit Giving,
3
Convio client data analysis. Target Analysis Year 2000 Cross-Industry
4
Regional Advocacy/Social Services Study.
Organization, Convio client data analysis.

39
2005 Politics Online Conference – Grassroots Advocacy and the Internet

and reinforce the organization’s integrate efforts for maximizing the

message. synergy between
Using the Internet to develop functions.
Summary Organizations also
and convert prospect lists should take advantage
The Internet has already
lowers the cost per dollar of new online tools
transformed online raised from $1.15-$1.50 for that make it possible
advocacy for many direct mail to $0.38-$0.50 to measure and
nonprofit organizations, for e-mail. manage constituent
and advancements in relationships in an
online technology are pushing the integrated fashion.
potential further. Nonprofit
The views in this article are the views of the
professionals in functions other than contributors only and do not reflect the views of the
advocacy should not only support the Politics Online Conference or the Institute for Politics,
advocacy role within the organization, Democracy & the Internet.
but also determine how to effectively

40
The Chamber Neil Hare
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce represents a Neil Hare is the vice
federation of local chambers, trade associations, president for corporate
large corporations, and small businesses. When communications at the
you add it up, the Chamber federation totals more U.S. Chambers of
Commerce.
than 3 million businesses throughout the United
States and the world. These pro-business advocates
make the U.S. Chamber the most powerful
lobbying group in Washington, D.C.

Prior to the advent of the Internet, it was more about pro-business candidates and
difficult and expensive to communicate issues.
with federation members and to mobilize
them strategically. Today, through The Virtual Chamber—
advanced electronic communications Providing a Destination for Our
and widespread access to broadband
Members
connections, the Chamber has reached a
new level of political action facilitated
A chamber of commerce by definition is
by the Internet. Not only is an electronic
a meeting place and an open forum for
communications strategy more versatile
ideas. In the past, U.S. Chamber
and cost-effective than conventional
members were invited to Washington
means but also as an added benefit, it
once a year for an annual meeting, which
keeps Chamber members more engaged
typically drew 2,000–3,000 business
and much more likely to retain their
owners.
membership.
For the majority of U.S. Chamber
The Chamber’s online program provides
members, though, a trip to Washington
four advantages that either were
to obtain news and information was
logistically impossible or far too
unachievable. So the Chamber
expensive in the past. First, it provides a
disseminated news in hard copy in the
“destination”—uschamber.com—for
form of a monthly magazine. For a long
federation members to attain information
period, the magazine was called Nation’s
on their time schedule. Second, it
Business. In 1999, it became the tabloid
provides two-way communications
uschamber.com—so named to drive
between the Chamber and its members
members to the Chamber’s Web site.
to identify specific areas of interest to
the diverse business community. Third,
Over time, members clamored for a
it provides Chamber members with the
greater level of engagement with the
targeted information they have
Chamber. The Web has answered their
requested. And, fourth, it provides a
call. Members can now make virtual
seamless mechanism for them to contact
visits to the Chamber every day by
their members of Congress and to learn

41
2005 Politics Online Conference – The Chamber

visiting uschamber.com. They can watch so that we know which topics are of
cybercasts of Chamber events, greatest importance to our members.
participate in chats with Chamber policy
experts, receive answers to specific Personalized Information
questions and find information on a
policy issue or business question. And The Chamber also leverages the one-to-
through our weekly e-mail, we alert one marketing opportunities offered by
members to the latest information the Internet. While the Chamber has not
relevant to their business and invite them yet risen to the capabilities of an
to click back to the Web site. Amazon.com, it is using information
gathered from members to provide
As more and more members logged onto targeted information in return.
uschamber.com and participated online,
we noticed that they tend to renew their Now when our members tell us what
membership at significantly higher rates there interests are, we can respond. We
than those who did not regularly visit the survey our new members to learn their
Web site. Therefore, the areas of interest and
Chamber’s Web site has In the 28 House races targeted give existing
become an extremely by the Chamber in 2004, the members multiple
effective and pro-business candidate won in opportunities to tell
inexpensive 20 of them. us what they want
membership retention In the Senate, the Chamber- to know. Based on
tool. these surveys, the
favored candidate won in 7 out
top issue for most of
Two-Way of 9 targeted races. our members is
Communications providing health
Channel care benefits for their employees. In
response to this concern, the Chamber
Before the Internet, we kept tabs on our has empowered its members to push for
members’ interests through surveys, health care reform. For example, we
direct mail pieces, phone calls and faxes notified our members about health
and focus groups. However, these savings accounts (HSAs) legislation,
mechanisms did not provide us with the explained the bill and tracked it for them
level of detail needed to service our and asked them to contact their
members. We knew, for instance, that representatives at the appropriate times.
business owners wanted lower taxes, but Since HSAs became available at the
we didn’t know the specific areas of the beginning of last year, we have
tax code they found most onerous. continued to explain their benefits and
how to use them.
Now we know. Through our electronic
communications channels, we hear daily Once again, those members who sign up
from our members through questions, for specific information through our
comments and feedback on appearances grassroots network feel more engaged
and quotes by Chamber representatives with the Chamber and renew at much
in the media. We track this information higher rates than those members who
have not done so.

42
2005 Politics Online Conference – The Chamber

As a result of this high level of

Hotline to Capitol Hill and to the
Polls
Taking advantage of the Internet’s
democratizing powers, the Chamber has
created an electronic grassroots lobbying
and voter education program called
VoteForBusiness. This program, which
can be accessed at
VoteForBusiness.com, enables the
business community to contact a
member of Congress from a specific
district to lobby on a specific issue—all
at the push of a button and at the speed
of light. It also serves as a valuable
resource for employers and employees
as they study issues and candidates,
especially at election time.
engagement, more Chamber members
are renewing their memberships. And as
our membership base grows, so does our
influence. In short, the Chamber has
discovered a formula for success—in
member satisfaction and in renewal
rates—that will carry it in the years
ahead.
The views in this article are the views of the
contributors only and do not reflect the views of the
Politics Online Conference or the Institute for Politics,
Democracy & the Internet.

VoteforBusiness had an unmistakable

impact on the most recent elections. In
the 28 House races targeted by the
Chamber, the pro-business candidate
won in 20 of them. In the Senate, the
Chamber-favored candidate won in 7 out
of 9 targeted races. While the Chamber
can’t take all the credit for these results,
we can claim that the pro-business
message was clear and targeted in the
districts where it mattered most.

And, once again, those members who

use VoteforBusiness.com feel engaged
and renew at much higher rates.

Conclusion
The Internet allows the Chamber to
engage its pro-business constituents in a
way that was never before possible. The
Chamber’s electronic communications
strategy gauges its members’ interests,
gives them the information they want,
enables them to make their voice heard
on issues, and motivates them to vote.

43
Can Internet Journalism
Survive Campaign
Finance Law?
Some Possible Issues at
the FEC Commissioner Bradley
A. Smith
One of the more interesting developments in
Bradley Smith is the
politics is the role of political Internet journalism. Commissioner of the
The popular focus has been on the “blogs,” which Federal Election
is shorthand for “Web log.” But Internet Commission. He is the
author of Unfree Speech:
journalism takes many forms. I see a continuum in The Folly of Campaign
this area, from journalism that resembles what we Finance Reform.
are accustomed to treating as institutional press, to
efforts that look more like those of an individual
hobbyist. A major goal, if not the major goal, of
campaign finance regulation is to empower
individual citizens. Yet, it appears that the more
Internet journalism seems to be that of an
individual rather than an established corporate
press entity, the greater the likelihood that the
activity could come under federal campaign
finance regulations.

Some Internet-only publications look
like conventional magazines, such as
Slate, and others are adjuncts of
established print (or “dead tree”)
publications, such as The Daily Standard
and National Review Online. This
category might also include the
influential and very substantive Note,
written by staff at ABC News and
distributed through ABC News.com. It
should probably also include
Opinionjournal.com, which provides
daily original analysis and opinion from
The Wall Street Journal.
In a similar vein, there are Web logs
written by individuals associated with
periodicals, like Mickey Kaus’s
Kausfiles, which he writes through the
Internet’s Slate, Tapped, which is the
Web log of the “paper” magazine The
American Prospect, and National
Review’s “The Corner.” Then there are
Web logs written by individuals who
also write regular columns in the

44
2005 Politics Online Conference – Can Internet Journalism Survive Campaign
Finance Law? Some Possible Issues at the FEC
conventional press, such as James comments in response. Just as with
Lilek’s Daily Bleat or Michelle Malkin’s conventional paper-and-broadcast
Web log. Some Web logs are associated journalism, talk of politics invariably
with academics, like The Volokh leads to talk of campaigns and elections,
Conspiracy, Glenn Reynold’s and discussion of specific candidates and
Instapundit and No Left Turns, which is political actors. In the world of
operated by the Ashbrook Center at campaign finance regulation, then, there
Ashland University. is the potential that these efforts will be
treated as political contributions if done
The huge growth in blogging, as I in coordination with a candidate, or
understand it, has come as individuals independent expenditures, subject
take advantage of potentially to limits,
inexpensive high- The more Internet journalism reporting requirements
powered computers and seems to be that of an and the prohibition
access to bandwidth to against using corporate
individual rather than an
blog. Some or labor funds.
individual’s sites have established corporate press
become quite entity, the greater the But Internet journalism
influential, among them likelihood that the activity presents challenges
Powerline, Little Green could come under federal when we try to apply
Footballs, Talking campaign finance the rules that were used
Points Memo, Atrios when political
regulations.
and Daily Kos. communications were
RealClearPolitics, a site that gathers in conventional newspapers and
together an amazing assortment of magazines, on broadcast or through the
political news and editorial links each mail. All of these methods required the
day, is regularly relied upon and has author to vault expensive barriers to
become influential among journalists, entry and were conducted in familiar
scholars and political aides. Individual venues for detection and regulation. Not
blog authors who attract public attention so in the world of blogs, e-mail
can earn the support of a media publications and virtual magazines.
company, like the law blog How
Appealing or, just to make sure we touch When faced with the challenge of
every base in the blogosphere, the regulating Internet communications as
intriguing if off-color Wonkette. By campaign contributions or expenditures,
contrast, Andrew Sullivan, who was a the Federal Election Commission (FEC)
very successful conventional journalist in 2002 took the approach that Internet
as editor of the New Republic, became a communications should be excluded
full time independent blogger at from treatment as “public
AndrewSullivan.com. communications.”7 It wrote a regulation
to that effect, which meant that even
Internet journalism takes many forms, were an Internet communication
but in terms of content it is generally “coordinated” with a candidate, a party
devoted to reporting news, summarizing or an agent of a candidate or party, it
news reports and expressing opinions. would not be treated as an in-kind
Many Web logs allow readers to post
7
11 C.F.R. § 100.26.

45
2005 Politics Online Conference – Can Internet Journalism Survive Campaign
Finance Law? Some Possible Issues at the FEC
contribution, just as a newspaper
interview or endorsement could be
“coordinated” with a candidate without
becoming a prohibited contribution.
Such coordination could also involve a
journalist talking with a source within
the campaign and the campaign’s plans.
The classification of “public
communications” is not explicitly
limited to advertising, so contrary to
what some have contended, the
exception was not merely one for paid
Internet ads. A federal district court,
however, recently rejected that
regulation in Shays v. FEC.8 The FEC
decided not to appeal the court’s
holding, so the Commission will begin
working on a new regulation that will
probably sweep Internet
communications into the mix.
There are other exemptions in the law
that could apply to Internet journalism,
but their scope and application are today
also unclear. As you may know,
conventional media activity enjoys an
exemption in the law. Under the Federal
Election Campaign Act, the term
expenditure does not include “any news
story, commentary, or editorial
distributed through the facilities of any
broadcasting station, newspaper,
magazine, or other periodical
publication, unless such facilities are
owned or controlled by any political
party, political committee, or
candidate.”9 The FEC’s regulation on
the point tracks the statute, and adds that
bona fide news accounts that give
reasonably equal coverage to all
candidates are exempt even when run
my media outlets that are owned or
8
Shays v. FEC, 337 F. Supp. 2d 28 (D.D.C.
2004).
9 10
2 U.S.C. § 431(9)(B)(i).
controlled by a party, committee or
candidate.10
The question for Internet journalists is
whether they are included in the media
entitled to the exemption or not. If the
Internet activity itself is a “publication”
then it would seem that all Internet
speech, possibly except for paid third-
party advertising, is exempt. Would that
conclusion rest well with the district
court judge who determined that Internet
exclusion in the “coordination” context
violated the statute? It is hard to say.
Since all Web-based journalists aren’t
alike, it could be tempting to engage in
regulatory line drawing. Maybe sites
affiliated with newspapers, magazines
and broadcasting get to enjoy the
exemption but independent sites offered
by individuals do not. Reviewing the
sites I discussed before, that could mean
that Mickey Kaus and The Corner enjoy
the protection of this exemption, but
Josh Marshall and Powerline do not.
Does this mean that Andrew Sullivan’s
pieces in the New Republic were exempt,
but his Daily Dish on his site is not?
Should we treat the comments posted by
readers as the speech of the site, since
the site publishes those views?
Wouldn’t protecting sites affiliated with
media companies, while enforcing
expenditure rules and regulations against
individuals, go against one of the
avowed purposes of our campaign
finance laws, which is to prevent
corporations from taking over political
speech?
My own position has been that opinions
and editorials, whether expressed in
books, movies, blogs or conventional
periodicals, are exempt under the law. I
11 C.F.R. § 100.132.
46
2005 Politics Online Conference – Can Internet Journalism Survive Campaign
Finance Law? Some Possible Issues at the FEC
remain uncomfortable with evaluating
case-by-case whether activity is “bona
fide” press activity or not. But it is by
no means clear to me that this is a
pervasive view or that it will carry the
day at the Commission over time.

The views in this article are the views of the

contributors only and do not reflect the views of the
Politics Online Conference or the Institute for Politics,
Democracy & the Internet.

47
The Internet Election
2004: Lessons from
Advocacy
Pam Fielding and Alan
Organizations Rosenblatt, Ph.D.

Pam Fielding is the

With so much attention focused on principal of e-advocates.
She is the co-author of
innovations by the presidential campaigns, it The Net Effect: How
is far too easy to overlook the online Cyberadvocacy is
Changing
successes of advocacy organizations during the Political Landscape,
the 2004 elections. the first published book
on Internet advocacy.
She is a speaker at the
While the candidate campaigns were getting some 2005 Politics Online
of their first big bites of the power of the Internet, Conference.
advocacy organizations were honing their long-
tested Internet strategies for educating and Alan Rosenblatt is the
director of training
mobilizing citizens. And, while the campaigns programs at e-
sent out their final thank you notes to email advocates.
advocates in the days following the election,
advocacy organizations were gearing up their
organizations for the ongoing policy battles that
always follow the vote.

Advocacy organizations in 2004 able to pursue some variation of these

pioneered and refined techniques for
using the Internet to influence the
elections and build their grassroots
networks at the same time. By
leveraging the opportunity of the
election to win campaigns and build
their long-term capacity, these
organizations are winning votes,
growing their base and boosting member
loyalty. All types of organizations,
whether they are allowed by the IRS to
endorse candidates and conduct
electioneering campaigns or not, were
strategies.
Even if they cannot endorse candidates,
advocacy organizations can promote
their issues positions and provide non-
partisan summaries of all candidate
positions on those issues. All
organizations, whether restricted by the
IRS on electioneering or not, can mount
voter education, voter registration and
get-out-the-vote (GOTV) campaigns.
And in doing so, these organizations
create stronger bonds with their activists

48
2005 Politics Online Conference – The Internet Election 2004: Lessons from
Advocacy Organizations
and demonstrate that the organization is
committed to advancing their priorities.
TeamEMILY.org
There are many examples among
corporations, non-profits and trade
associations from which we can draw
lessons. Let us begin with an
organization that is no stranger to
pioneering strategies: EMILY’s List.
EMILY’s List, the nation’s largest
political action committee (PAC) that
pioneered bundling campaign
contributions, wanted to reach out to
younger, pro-choice, Democratic women
and men and engage them in the political
process. The group’s traditional
members are 40-plus women already
established in their careers and lives, and
a new approach was needed to introduce
EMILY’s list to the next generation of
activists.
During the Republican National
Convention, Team EMILY, a new
grassroots network and Web site
launched in 2004 to reach out and
engage younger women and capitalize
on new viral campaigning strategies and
tools, launched the Get Out the
Republicans (GOTR) Counter
Convention. The goals of the GOTR
Counter Convention were to engage
younger pro-choice Democrats, educate
them about the stakes of the election,
encourage them to volunteer for the
candidates and to contribute money to
the campaigns.
To make GOTR a success, Team
EMILY used a variety of tools, such as
online surveys and a blog, to create an
interactive environment for Counter
Convention participants. Viral
campaign tools, like tell-a-friend
functions embedded in HTML e-mail
and on the TeamEMILY.org Web site,
helped EMILY’s activists spread the
word to their friends and family. And all
communications and Web pages on the
site made it easy for supporters to donate
money to EMILY’s List to support its
endorsed candidates.
The Counter Convention campaign
lasted four days, corresponding to the
days of the Republican Convention.
Participants were asked to form their
own Counter Convention team and
download a GOTR Convention Kit,
including “Counter Convention
Credentials” and other tools for hosting a
GOTR convention watching party. The
GOTR convention party that raised the
most money was awarded posters signed
by EMILY’s List founder Ellen
Malcolm.
As a result of all of EMILY’s List’s
campaign, which included both online
and offline strategies and tactics, five of
the eight newly elected women in the
House of Representatives were
supported by EMILY’s List and every
one of its endorsed incumbents in both
chambers were re-elected. Its
fundraising efforts were wildly
successful, as an organization record of
more than 100,000 people contributed
approximately $10.6 million, an average
of $98 per contributor.
To see more of TeamEMILY.org’s
online tools and creative, visit
www.teamemily.org.
WeMakeAmericaWork.org
In the months leading up to Election
2004, the American Federation of
49
2005 Politics Online Conference – The Internet Election 2004: Lessons from
Advocacy Organizations
Government Employees (AFGE)—the
nation’s largest federal employee union
representing 600,000 federal and D.C.
government workers—seized the
opportunity to energize and rally its
traditionally older membership to fight
for workers’ rights to elect a President
and a Congress that would work for
America’s federal workers. AFGE
launched an election Web site—
WeMakeAmericaWork.org—to do just
that.
As a result of this campaign, AFGE
expanded its e-mail list of home
addresses by 46 percent, with many
coming from battleground states. This is
crucial, since AFGE needed to
communicate with members at home to
comply with laws governing political
communications with union members.
Visit WeMakeAmericaWork.org to learn
more.

The goals of WeMakeAmericaWork.org Harrah’s Winning Together

were to educate, persuade and activate
AFGE members to participate and Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc., one of the
advance the cause of federal workers in world’s largest casino operators, saw the
2004 elections. The Web site was 2004 election cycle as an opportunity to
designed to educate and mobilize three reach out to its employees, vendors and
target audiences—workers, voters and allied organizations to get them involved
the media—about the in its Winning Together
issues facing federal In 2004, 1500 groups program. The Winning
workers and mobilize used online technology Together program includes
them for immediate to help register over strong state and local political
action in the final grassroots elements.
weeks and days leading
500,000 people to vote
up to Election Day. in the election. Harrah’s used the excitement
They viewed 51 million of the elections to introduce
On the site members pages of election its innovative program to
were asked to sign up content in the weeks demonstrate and
on AFGE’s e-mail list prior to Election Day. communicate the depth of the
to “Make America company’s community
Work,” register to volunteer in involvement and the breadth of its
battleground states, contribute to political impact. The program seeks to
AFGE’s PAC, identify and research educate Harrah’s employees and vendors
candidates in their states, tell others about the importance of the gaming
about the campaign, register to vote industry, community involvement and
online and download a members-only grassroots activism in order to build an
action kit. Voters were provided legally effective grassroots network of activists.
permissible information and Winning Together organizes these
opportunities to join the list, volunteer activists to become politically active and
and register to vote. Members of the positively affect the outcome of the
media were invited to “cover our beat,” legislative process. This is
with opportunities to meet America’s accomplished by encouraging grassroots
workers, join AFGE on the campaign political involvement through various
trail and cover workers’ stories. community projects that foster

50
2005 Politics Online Conference – The Internet Election 2004: Lessons from
Advocacy Organizations
relationship-building activities with the
communities in which Harrah’s operates.
Winning Together sought to educate
Harrah’s 48,000 employees about the
importance of voting, as well as the
importance of proposed legislation that
could impact its business so they would
cast informed ballots. It also mobilized
its grassroots activists through Harrah’s
Employee Action Team (HEAT) rooms,
which are rooms in Harrah’s casino
properties that provide employees with
access to computers, phones, and
educational materials to help them
register to vote and advocate for key
issues facing the gaming industry. The
program also serves to educate
legislators and citizens about the
economic benefits of the gaming
industry to state and local communities,
providing a forum for Harrah’s to
counter the misconceptions abut the
gaming industry and to create good will
among its communities.
Widespread Impact
Across the nation, literally millions of
citizens used advocacy organization
Web sites to identify and learn about
candidates for local to national races,
find their polling places, and register to
vote. In fact, looking only at
organizations using Capitol Advantage’s
Capwiz technology, some 1500
organizations helped register over
500,000 people to vote in Election 2004,
and there were more than 51 million
page views of election content in the few
weeks prior to the election.
It is difficult to underestimate the
powerful role played by advocacy
organizations in Election 2004. The
impact of their efforts to register voters,
educate online citizens about candidates
and issues and push voters to the polls
on Election Day is still being felt. Long
after the campaigns closed their doors,
these organizations will be connecting
voters with issues and the tools to make
a difference, from their house to the
White House.
The views in this article are the views of the
contributors only and do not reflect the views of the
Politics Online Conference or the Institute for Politics,
Democracy & the Internet.
51
E-Voter 2004 Study:
Crossing the River
From the perspective of the convergence of
the Internet and politics, what were the main
themes of the 2004 election season?
A dozen areas of interest emerged from the
research and essays that are contained in the E-
Voter 2004 Study:
1. Use of the Internet Explodes
Voters used the Internet to research
candidates and issues, contribute money
and have their own voices heard—
individually and in groups. Generally all
candidates were expected to have at least
a Web site, if not a way to contribute
online. Not only were potential voters
looking for position papers, they were
looking to be entertained with re-
purposed television commercials, games,
clever animation, opportunities to buy
campaign related items and ways to
interact with the campaign. In
particular, interactive games, while often
humorous, were also used to register
new voters, raise funds and turn out the
vote. Journalists used candidate sites, as
did the competition, to stay current with
campaign activities. Geography mattered
less as virtual communities formed to
support and debate candidates and
causes.
2. The Media Evolves
Media habits are clearly changing, and
the dependence on traditional media as
the primary method to communicate
with voters has been challenged.
Fragmentation created by multiple media
Karen A. B. Jagoda
Karen Jagoda is the
president of the E-Voter
Institute.
sources, convergence of media typified
by online radio and multi-tasking have
changed the landscape, making media
buyers more uncertain about where to
get the most bang for the buck. Interest
in printed political signs and bumper
stickers was at an all time high in states
with tight races, as individuals took to
ordering signs online in addition to
downloading and printing material
themselves. Polling is becoming less
accurate in part because of the diverse
media and the dramatic increase in the
number of people with only a cell phone.
Extensive implementation of Internet
broadband access changes the
expectations of voters for audio and
video messages.
3. Online Fundraising Expands
Campaigns and committees found that
online fundraising was effective and
cheaper than traditional models of
outreach. Though the average amount
might have been less than the top
contributors would traditionally send by
check, many new contributors found the
Internet a convenient way to participate.
It is uncertain how much of this
participation turned into votes. What is
52
2005 Politics Online Conference – E-Voter 2004 Study: Crossing the River

known is that online ads were very audio and video increase awareness by
persuasive for increasing intention to 10 percent over standard online ad
donate, especially when the ads were formats. Traditional television ads were
seen on popular Web sites and at times shown on candidate Web sites for the
when voters were most receptive to the benefit of journalists and voters but
message. never shown on broadcast or cable
television.
4. The Growth of Money in Politics
We predicted in 2003 that despite 6. Political Online Advertising Lags
campaign finance reform that banned Behind Ad Industry Average
corporations and unions from giving Of the estimated $1.75 billion spent on
“soft money” to national political political advertising in 2004,
parties, big money would find a way into approximately $15 million (0.9 percent)
the political system. In 2004, an was spent for online advertising as
estimated $386 million was poured into measured by TNS Media
Federal elections by 527s, partisan Intelligence/CMAG. A total $3.9 billion
organizations named after the tax code was spent overall for the presidential and
under which they fall. Another $384 congressional races of 2004 according to
million was contributed the Center for Responsive
to political action Internet advertising is Politics.
committees—33 expected to grow by 25
percent more than four percent in 2005, while Total online advertising
years ago, according to network television is in 2004 was $9.4 billion,
the Center for expected to grown by only representing
Responsive Politics. approximately three to
Not only was this the
two percent. five percent of all
most expensive election advertising budgets.
cycle in our history, new channels were Internet advertising is expected to grow
created for giving. Many of these by 25 percent in 2005, while network
organizations used online ads for television is expected to grow by two
persuasion and raising money, as well as percent according to Universal McCann.
e-mail appeals. Political online advertising has grown
significantly from just eight years ago
5. The Rules of Engagement Are but with only one percent of the political
Changing ad budgets going to online ads, there is
The nature of advertising is changing— further evidence that political strategists
Internet ads have broken the rules of and media planners are lagging behind
engagement and television ads have their counterparts in the communications
become more Internet-like. Does humor field.
work better than negative ads? This year
saw plenty of both online. There is also The slow acceptance of political and
ample evidence that Internet ads are advocacy online ads is due in part to the
persuasive even if viewers do not click complexity of the media buy. Ads are
through to the candidate’s Web site. required in multiple formats, and it is a
According to December 2004 research challenge to determine the best
from Dynamic Logic, online ads using placement for them. At the same time,

53
2005 Politics Online Conference – E-Voter 2004 Study: Crossing the River
prime advertising inventory on leading
sites continues to go up in price and
down in availability as more traditional
advertisers with big ad budgets switch
their ad dollars to online. There is
convincing evidence that the online ads
were persuasive and could significantly
influence voters to feel more favorable
about a candidate.
7. Increase in Early Voting
Across the country, nearly 20 percent of
the votes were cast before November 2,
2004. The majority used voting
machines set up at convenient locations
weeks before the election, while
hundreds of thousands used absentee
mail-in ballots that are increasingly
being encouraged in many states.
Money spent reaching those voters after
they had voted was wasted. The idea of
the election being a one-day event is
morphing into a season for voting, which
severely challenges a media buyer’s plan
and increases the value of data mining,
tracking, and targeting.
8. Blogging Goes Mainstream
Blog—nerds in pajamas or the new
journalism? Bloggers created a new
class of engaged citizens and a way for
the like-minded to find each other online
in personality driven Web sites.
Celebrity commentator blogs were
promoted on broadcast and cable news
shows. People found blogs often by
using RSS (Really Simple Syndication)
that also allowed them to create their
own blogs.
While blogs have been developing for
years as provocative places on the
Internet, this year the political scene
inspired new uses for the technology.
Just as MeetUp.com was originally
intended to bring together Chihuahua
owners, so were blogs first used for
underground rants on popular culture.
Traditional marketers did learn a great
deal from the growth of political blogs in
2004, particularly the need to monitor
them for propaganda and about the
potential for advertising on them. This
was the year blogs went from edgy to
mainstream.
9. E-Mail Use Expands and Faces
New Challenges
E-mail newsletters, spam messages and
other direct mail-like activities were
targeted to likely voters based on
geographic and lifestyle characteristics
The cost effective nature of the online
world convinced the direct mail people
to at least spend part of the budget on
Internet appeals. Many attempted to mix
e-mails with phone calls and direct mail
to re-enforce the message. Rich media
messages with color, animation, sound,
and invitations to enter data were
increasingly the norm, a direct result of
the proliferation of broadband across
America. Voters spent more time
engaged with rich media online ads,
further eroding the unique position of
television for sound and motion.
Many of these messages were sent to
others in what became strong viral
campaigns beyond the control of the
candidate. Privacy issues and concerns
about spam rose to new levels, while at
the same time techniques were
introduced to combat the abuses and
citizens became more comfortable with
privacy invasions in the name of security
protection.
10. Database Mining Targets Likely
Voters
Convergence of database tools, hand-
held devices, the Internet and wireless
54
2005 Politics Online Conference – E-Voter 2004 Study: Crossing the River
communications created the first truly
useful virtual campaign headquarters
with tools for volunteers, campaign
managers, contributors and journalists.
Many bells and whistles were part of the
emerging solutions. The most
interesting perhaps allowed for matching
voter files with other data and getting
that information into the hands of people
who went door to door showing
electronic ads to voters on their hand-
held devices.
11. Targeting Becomes More
Sophisticated
Which brings us to the larger matter of
targeting messages. Micro-targeting and
behavioral targeting became the name of
the game. In an effort to find relevancy
for the ad message, many campaigns
turned to ads on search engines and
blogs as ways to find a narrow but loyal
base of voters. In the advertising world,
data shows that relevancy to the mindset
of the viewer in large part determines the
effectiveness of the message.
Increasingly, the Internet illustrates the
inefficiencies of television advertising,
in addition to the mass reach and
frequency that makes it so powerful.
Neuroscientists even began studying
how different images can stimulate the
brain in ways that might be useful in a
political context for targeting specific
messages to the most receptive people.
12. The Good Guys and the Bad Guys
All Have Access to the Internet
Both the Republicans and Democrats
used online advertising, blogs, e-mail
alerts and wireless messaging to raise
money, mobilize the base, recruit new
voters and win races. While the Internet
was becoming a key element in electoral
politics, it was also increasingly used by
terrorists, freedom fighters, insurgents
and assorted bad guys to recruit and
mobilize followers and to post horrific
pictures for worldwide consumption to
persuade and gain support. The
technology is a tool for good and evil
and like all media can be dangerous in
the wrong hands.
The E-Voter 2004 Study is not intended
to be a complete survey of all online
political and advocacy activities but
rather provide an historical view and
guide to the key emerging elements in
the political and public affairs
landscape. Our goal is to stimulate
debate, promote the use of the Internet,
encourage experimentation with cross
media optimization strategies, and help
those who are crossing the frontier to
better convince the uninitiated. We all
hope to stimulate an interest in using
Internet tools for fundraising,
persuasion, and mobilization in order to
promote a more robust and inclusive
democracy.
The views in this article are the views of the
contributors only and do not reflect the views of the
Politics Online Conference or the Institute for Politics,
Democracy & the Internet.
55
Increasing Activism Andrew Stocking, Randy

Through Community Paynter, Lisa Sock and

Rebecca Young

Engagement Andrew Stocking is the

vice president for
Business development at
Introduction to Member Activism Models Care2.com. He is a
speaker at the 2005
Politics Online
The Internet has greatly expanded the capacity for Conference.
nonprofit organizations to engage their
membership in campaigns, and as a result, Randy Paynter is the
founder and CEO of
nonprofits all seem to be running online campaigns Care2.com.
and growing their e-mail lists. But how has this
rise in online campaigns affected the ways activists Lisa Sock is the
are involved in issues and advocacy? Do campaigns manager of
Care2.com.
individuals develop an allegiance to one
organization or are they involved in numerous Rebecca Young works at
organizations? And how does this increased access Care2.com.
to information and issues affect their members’
involvement in the organization?

There appear to be two schools of
thought:
a) Individuals who are active for
nonprofits are likely to be active for
multiple nonprofits with which they are
involved;
b) Individuals may devote a lot of time
to one or two nonprofits but are unlikely
to be active in multiple organizations.
Increasingly, data has been presented
anecdotally at conferences and in other
forums that suggests the former—once
someone becomes active in a nonprofit
organization, that person becomes
increasingly active for all or most
nonprofits that cross their path. This
idea is succinctly summarized by Jed
Miller and Rob Stuart in their paper on
Network-Centric Advocacy: “the
evidence shows that citizens are more
active in the process of governance when
they are members of more than one
group devoted to a particular issue. They
vote more regularly, participate in email
campaigns, and engage in lobbying.”
In early 2004, Care2 launched Care2
Connect, an online social
network of nonprofits, affinity groups
and several million members who want
to help people and the planet.
Nonprofits can easily set up a
personalized network within Care2
Connect to enable their members to
interact with and relay advocacy alerts to
any members network-wide with whom
they are connected. Members benefit

56
2005 Politics Online Conference – Increasing Activism through Community
Engagement
from Care2 Connect by sharing and between the Care2 community and most
learning about issues and organizations nonprofit online communities facilitates
they care about, meeting and engaging the transferability of the results offered
with other members and below to many
Table 1. Care2’s Audience Demographic
learning about events nonprofit organizations.
Total Care2 Membership >4 million registered
and activities near Monthly Visitors >1 million unique
them. Taken together, Education 65% college education A final useful piece of
Annual Household Inc. 65% greater than $75k
Care2 Connect offers Age 30-35 average age
information in
the unique opportunity Gender 75-80% women understanding the
Party Affiliation (self-ID) 50% Dem; 42% Indp.
to analyze a member’s Care2 audience and
activism level as they how to identify and
engage with more nonprofit groups and a mobilize parallel audiences within other
larger progressive community. communities is understanding how
Care2 builds community to engage and
Community Building on empower its visitors. The following
Care2.com three techniques have proven useful on
Care2 for mobilized community:
Care2 launched in 1998 as an online
consumer portal that gives people the 1. Provide integrated educational
opportunity to help the world and live a messaging to change members’ attitudes
healthier lifestyle while doing things toward a particular action.
they normally do on Internet. To this • Over 7 million educational
end, Care2 offers a full suite of portal content newsletters are delivered
and community building features such as each month about easy things
free e-cards, free e-mail, discussion one can do to live healthier,
boards, social reduce one’s impact on the world
networking, free and support
Table 2. Care2 Audience
content newsletters, Psychographics: sustainable
• Educated, affluent consumers businesses and
photo albums, click-to- • Socially/environmentally conscious (85%)
donate sites, news feeds • Busy professional juggling many activities
products.
and much more. • Supportive of non-profit causes • Over 4 million
• Health and natural living enthusiasts
• Family-oriented
activist e-mails,
Today Care2 is the • Vegetarians (24%) in addition to
• Gardeners (45%)
many supportive
home to over 4 million • Pet Owners (79%)
politically progressive • Athletic, outdoor enthusiasts (45%) Web site
consumers who care placements are
about environmental delivered each
and social causes and leading a healthier month to allow our 2 million
lifestyle (see Table 1 and Table 2). The activists to engage with current
Care2 audience tends to be female (75 progressive campaigns.
percent), 30-something, educated and
fairly affluent. As such, this 2. Create an atmosphere where
demographic parallels almost perfectly a progressive activism has become part of
typical online community of most the social norm.
advocacy-centered nonprofits. The • Micro-sites for nonprofit
similarities in the demographic makeup organizations, such as click-to-

57
2005 Politics Online Conference – Increasing Activism through Community
Engagement
donate sites, (i.e.,
http://oceans.care2.com/) bring
together over 10,000 activists
every day on Care2 to support
the mission of the partner
nonprofit. In addition, these
micro-sites demonstrate to
individuals the value of inviting
and engaging their friends.
• Care2’s PetitionSite
demonstrates to every
participating activist that he or
she is not alone in taking action
on important issues. The social
proof in seeing previous
signatures and individual
comments demonstrates the
value of participation (i.e., any of
the Most Popular petitions at:
http://www.ThePetitionSite.com)
and inviting friends to also take
action.
3. Promote a sense of self-efficacy,
whereby members know that they can
personally make a difference.
• Tools on Care2, such as
GetLocal and Green Thumbs Up,
aggregate personalized and
localized environmental
information to demonstrate to
members how they can help the
environment in a specific
location or when they are
shopping online.
• Care2 provides several
community tools and online
calculators, such as the Daily
Action Site, which ask
individuals to change their
behavior and then aggregate the
results of many individuals to
show the cumulative outcome.
This has proven to be a valuable
tool to demonstrate the magnified
power of a single voice.
While each technical system described
above helps to empower community
involvement, it is the consistent,
meaningful and thoughtful
communication with members that helps
to keep the community engaged. In
addition, this type of communication
heightens the level of member
contribution and feedback, which makes
the community self-sustaining.
Statistical Analysis of
Community and Nonprofit
Activity
To better understand how our members’
increased involvement with multiple
nonprofits and groups on Care2 Connect
affects their level of activism, we
selected a sample of active members
from the Care2 Connect community and
aggregated data on community and
nonprofit activity for these members.
We measured online community activity
through individual members’ discussion
posts, discussion group memberships,
size of friend networks and number of
groups each member hosts. We
measured nonprofit activism through the
number of actions each member took
through ThePetitionSite, Daily Action
site and Care2’s click-to-donate sites.
We found overwhelmingly that as Care2
members’ activity within the community
increased, their nonprofit activism level
also increased. Specifically, as a
member’s group memberships and
discussion board posts increased, so did
the number of petitions they sign and the
number of actions they take. In fact, the
average number of petitions signed over
a six-month period by the selected
sample group doubled following the
launch of Care2 Connect. And between
58
2005 Politics Online Conference – Increasing Activism through Community
Engagement
the first six months of Care2 Connect Sam has been a member of Care2 since
and the second six months, the members 2002, but never signed a petition until
in the selected sample have experienced becoming active on the Care2 Connect
a quadrupling of their numbers of groups social network. He is now one of the
and number of friend connections. The most active members on the network and
results affirm the benefit of online has participated in many nonprofit
community engagement for fostering a advocacy campaigns. Motivated by the
greater degree of progressive activism. results of the presidential election, Sam
mobilized his network to participate in a
Our analysis showed an interesting trend boycott of companies that profited from
for those members who host online the war in Iraq and to protest the
discussion groups—their activism tends presidential inauguration through the
to decrease as they host more and more “Not One Damn Dime” campaign. He
groups. This result is not entirely started his own group called “Reforming
unexpected for anyone who has hosted Our Democracy” to continue the
an online community forum. Good hosts momentum on the network around
put a tremendous amount of energy into furthering progressive values in
their groups, and may focus more on American politics. Through this group,
retaining and engaging he recruited four other
their group members As Care2 members’ activity active community
rather than taking action within the community members to co-host,
in as many campaigns as increased, their nonprofit compiled an extensive
possible. So while the activism level also increased. list of progressive site
activism of these select It doubled following the links for members and
individuals decreases, started ongoing
their impact on the
launch of Care2Connect. threads, such as “The
community is enormous Tools of Democracy”
and can greatly increase the advocacy and “You Can Make a Difference.” The
and reach of their group members. group has been remarkably dynamic—
over 25 percent of the group members
Case Studies of Increased has started discussion threads, and an
Community and Nonprofit even greater percentage has posted
responses.
Activism
• John H. was looking for a way to
Further strengthening these statistical
support the Wolf Mountain Sanctuary, a
results are a number of anecdotal case
group he learned about on Care2
studies, demonstrating how members
Connect. He shared the idea of
increasingly engage with the broader
organizing a motorcycle run for the
community as their activity level has
Sanctuary with his network of friends on
increased. These illustrate why it is
Care2 Connect. The network jumped
natural to see increased community
into action and buzzed with ideas on
involvement leading to increased
how to organize effective fundraisers.
activism for like-minded nonprofits.
Feeling empowered, John contacted the
Sanctuary and coordinated with its staff
• Sam H. exemplifies the power of a
to plan the fundraiser on his own.
social network to engage and motivate.

59
2005 Politics Online Conference – Increasing Activism through Community
Engagement
• When the Asia tsunami hit, Care2
Connect members joined forces to raise
more than $110,000 through the Care2
Connect Web site; significantly more
was likely donated (though not
trackable) directly to on-the-ground
organizations. Discussion boards lit up
with an outpouring of compassion and
messages of hope, which helped to
support surviving families and friends.
Members sent information about what
they were learning, how they were
processing the tragedy and shared other
ways to help survivors in addition to
giving money. This included holding a
bake sale, hosting a potluck to discuss
the tragedy and posting ways to get in
touch with local chapters of the Red
Cross.
• Raven D. helps take care of
abandoned animals. When she came
down with lung cancer, she turned to her
Care2 Connect network to help her find
a caring home for the animals. Within 24
hours, nearly 50 people responded to
Raven’s post, offering support and ideas
on how to find the best home for the
pets. Dozens of people recommended
animal welfare organizations that they
had worked with in the past to find
suitable homes for their pets. Others
contacted her at home to offer to help
her with her pets until she can find a
home.
• When Lisa J. decided to attend a
“Progress for All” event in the San
Francisco Bay area to mark the 2005
presidential inauguration, she shared the
party information with the Care2
Connect community through the event
system. She promoted the event to five
of her groups on Care2 Connect. Of the
many members who likely attended, at
least one contacted Lisa for details and
then brought her young son to the event.
She had been looking for a way to mark
the inauguration but didn’t want to go to
a protest and told Lisa how grateful she
was to have learned about the “Progress
for All” party.
The Care2 Connect community has
produced hundreds of examples such as
these. Each demonstrates the
empowering nature of a strong
community to offer support, accomplish
one’s goals and meet like-minded
people. And it is not difficult to
understand that members, once
empowered, are more willing to take
action for other members and nonprofit
campaigns with which they come into
contact.
Conclusion About Engaging a
Progressive Community
What does this mean for a political or
advocacy nonprofit organization? Don’t
be afraid of your members being
involved in like-minded organizations.
While it is natural for everyone to want
to closely guard their members and
cultivate their donors, our experience
with the 4 million Care2 members
suggests that our members are happy to
receive information from and be active
in campaigns with multiple nonprofits.
In any given week, a Care2 member may
get three, four, five or more e-mails from
nonprofit organizations and/or Care2.
But our analysis suggests that these
members continue to respond to these
alerts and share them with their
networks.
As a final example of this, Harry Q. has
been a Care2 member for just over five
years and is a very active member on
60
2005 Politics Online Conference – Increasing Activism through Community
Engagement
Care2 Connect. Harry belongs to over
40 groups on Care2 Connect and is a
member of numerous nonprofits, ranging
from Planned Parenthood to NARAL to
Oceana to NRDC. Harry consistently
shares the nonprofit action alerts he
receives from all of these organizations
with his network and with his discussion
groups through posts and personal
messages. He hosts over ten groups
himself, and so is in a position to
educate, organize and engage thousands.
As Harry builds his portfolio of relevant
nonprofits, he becomes more active for
each nonprofit through direct action and
through mobilizing friends who have
come to see him as an activism maven.

So, what do you do if you don’t have a

compelling action on your site for this
week’s e-mail newsletter? Consider
sharing content from another group’s
site with your members, or report the
results of a study commissioned by
another nonprofit with your members.
Use your event calendar to post events
not only from your own organization but
also from like-minded organizations.
Encourage your members to participate
in partner-nonprofit discussions and
campaigns when they compliment your
own. Your members will ultimately
appreciate the information, share it with
their friends, and most importantly,
become increasingly engaged with your
own community.

The views in this article are the views of the

contributors only and do not reflect the views of the
Politics Online Conference or the Institute for Politics,
Democracy & the Internet.

61
Co-Creation and
Open Source Politics:
Meetup Communities
in the 2004
Presidential
Campaign
The Internet has facilitated and accelerated a
change in the relationship between
producers and customers that represents a
profound shift in power and ideology (Vargo
and Lusch, 2004; Watson, Berthon, Pitt and
Zinkan, 2004). Rather than passive
consumers simply choosing among a range
of competing firm offerings, they have
become co-producers of value (e.g., see
Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2004a; Prahalad
and Ramaswamy 2004b; Prahalad and
Ramaswamy 2003).
The open source software movement
illustrates this paradigm shift. As
defined by Webopedia, open source is a
program in which the source code is
available to the general public for use
and/or modification from its original
design free of charge and where the
collaborative effort typically results in
the changes being shared within the
community. It is premised on a
philosophy that the more who have
access to the code, the more there are to
freely make improvements to it or come
up with new ideas for new software built
from the code.
Christine B. Williams
and Bruce D. Weinberg
Christine Williams is a
professor of government
at Bentley College in
Waltham, Massachusetts
and a Visiting Fellow at
the Institute for Politics,
Democracy & the
Internet. She is a
speaker at the 2005
Politics Online
Conference.
Bruce Weinberg is an
associate professor
marketing at Bentley
College in Waltham,
Massachusetts.
The transition of consumer to co-
producer, and of closed source to open
source, is increasingly mirrored in
politics. Rather than simply choosing
among competing candidates, voters
have become co-producers in the
candidate’s (or cause’s) campaign
experience due to the power of
electronic networks and the associated
consumer behavior they enable, such as
word-of-Web (Weinberg and Davis
2005). The Internet and a variety of
associated Web-based tools have been
instrumental in facilitating this
62
2005 Politics Online Conference – Co-Creation and Open Source Politics: Meetup
Communities in the 2004 Presidential Campaign
transition. Indeed, Micah Sifry (2004) Our findings demonstrate that Meetup is
writes for The Nation, “anyone with a an effective campaign tool: frequent
few resources but a compelling message participants donate more, volunteer
can be a community organizer, an ad- more, express stronger support for the
maker, a reporter, a publisher, a theorist, candidate and are more likely to
a money-raiser or a leader.” Like advocate that others work for the
consumers, citizens in this model candidate. Meetup attendance correlates
become co-producers, in this case, of with other forms of political activity as
democracy. Meetup is representative of well and with some demographic
this paradigm shift from traditional characteristics we typically associate
models of representative democracy to with greater political participation—
an open source politics. older age and stronger (Democratic)
party identification—but not with
A meetup is an Internet organized gender, race or income. To investigate
volunteer run meeting of people who whether and how the Meetup community
share a common interest, arranged is unique, we compared those whose
through the organization, Meetup—see campaign involvement began through
www.Meetup.com. The potential of Meetup with those who already were
Meetup was demonstrated in the 2004 involved in the campaign before
presidential campaign, attending any Meetups.
where it was adopted by People whose campaign They are younger, less
all of the leading involvement began through active politically and
candidates, most Meetup.com are younger, have weaker
prominently by Howard less active politically and Democratic Party
Dean. The technology affiliation but a stronger
facilitated people have weaker Democratic positive reaction to the
finding each other Party affiliation than those Meetup experience.
online, so that they who were already involved This finding lends
could get together or in the campaign prior to support to the Dean
“meet up” offline, attending a Meetup. They campaign claim that it
resulting in a new type also had a strong positive brought new people into
of hybrid people and political process and
technology-based reaction to the Meetup energized them. (Just
phenomenon, which has experience. over half our sample
been classified as an e2f had attended Dean’s
(electronic to face) community Meetups.)
(Williams, Weinberg and Gordon 2004).
We surveyed attendees of all presidential These data show some similarities to the
candidates’ Meetups between January 22 profile of Online Political Influentials
and March 10, 2004, with a final sample reported in a recent study by the Institute
of 820 valid responses, to assess the for Politics, Democracy & the Internet.
campaign effectiveness of Meetup and Like online political Influentials, both
differences between Meetup attendees our frequent and first time Meetup
and traditional political activists. attendees are predominantly white,
middle aged and above average income.
A major difference is that 62 percent of

63
2005 Politics Online Conference – Co-Creation and Open Source Politics: Meetup
Communities in the 2004 Presidential Campaign
online political Influentials were male,
whereas all of our Meetup surveys found
the reverse gender division. In at least
this respect, the Meetup community is
indeed unique. We need further analysis
of their demographic and behavioral
attributes relative to political Influentials
and to the general public to understand
the full extent to which Meetup
represents not only a new political tool,
but also a new kind of political activist.
Clearly, Meetup adds incremental value
to a campaign in the form of
contributions, volunteers, committed
supporters and advocates.
An intriguing question is whether
meetups can change the playing field,
though perhaps not level it, by bringing
new and different people—e.g., the
grassroots in the case of Howard Dean—
into the political process. Further, can
these participants, in turn, significantly
impact the long-term direction of a
political organization or body? Given
Howard Dean’s rise to Chair of the
Democratic National Committee (e.g.,
see Kornblutt 2005) and the pronounced
strength of his connection to the
grassroots, our tentative hypotheses, for
consideration in future research, is that
the answer to each of these questions is
yes.
The views in this article are the views of the
contributors only and do not reflect the views of the
Politics Online Conference or the Institute for Politics,
Democracy & the Internet.
Notes
Kornblutt, Anne. 2005. Democrats Elect
Dean as Committee Chairman. New York
Times. February 13. Online at
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/13/politics
/13dems.html.
Prahalad, CK and Venkatram Ramasawamy.
2004a. Co-creating Unique Value With
Customers. Strategy and Leadership.
32(3):4-9.
Prahalad, CK and Venkatram Ramasawamy.
2004b. Co-creation experiences: The next
practice in value creation. Journal of
Interactive Marketing. 18(3):5-14.
Prahalad, CK and Venkatram Ramasawamy.
2004b. The New Frontier of Experience
Innovation. MIT Sloan Management
Review. 44(4):12-18.
Sifry, Micah L. 2004. The Rise of Open-
Source Politics. The Nation. November 22.
279(17):14-20.
Vargo, Stephen L. and Robert F. Lusch.
2004. Evolving to a New Dominant Logic
for Marketing. Journal of Marketing.
68(1):1.
Watson, Richard T., Pierre Berthon, Leyland
F. Pitt and George M. Zinkhan. 2004.
Marketing in the age of the Network: From
Marketplace to U-space. Business
Horizons. Greenwich: Nov/Dec. Vol. 47(6):
33.
Williams, Christine B., Bruce D. Weinberg
and Jesse Gordon. 2004. When Online and
Offline Politics “Meetup:” An Examination
of the Phenomenon, Presidential Campaign
and its Citizen Activists. American Political
Science Association Annual Conference
Proceedings, (Editors: Atul Kohli and
Anne Norton), Chicago, September.
Weinberg, Bruce D. and Lenita Davis. 2005.
Exploring the WOW in Online Auction
Feedback. Journal of Business Research.
Forthcoming.
64
Web Video 2004:
A Breakthrough
Technology in a
Breakthrough Year
“The Revolution will not be televised,” Joe
Trippi advised us all in the title of his book
on e-politics in 2004.
Joe could not be more wrong.
2004, indeed, will be remembered not
just as the year of the blogger, but also
as the year campaigns, would-be ad
makers and revolutionaries, video
satirists and polemicists put Web video
squarely on the map. This involved a
series of “first”:
• The First Major Presidential
Web Video Ad
Before the Bush-Cheney
campaign aired their first TV ads,
they e-mailed two notable Web
video ads to their six million e-
mail subscribers: “Coalition of
the Wild Eyed” and
“Unprincipled.” The latter
garnered tremendous free media
for the campaign on news
networks and the print media and
put the Kerry campaign on the
defensive.
• The First Presidential Debate
Rapid Response Web Video
The Democrats had their own
Web video breakthrough.
Following the first presidential
Dan Manatt
Dan Manatt is the
principal, consultant and
producer for
DCWebVideo.com, a
manatt.net company.
debate, the Democratic National
Committee e-mailed reporters
and supporters “Faces of
Frustration,” a Web video
showing President Bush
scowling, smirking and
grimacing throughout the course
of the debate. The video was re-
broadcast by NBC and other
news media, deepening the
perception that Bush had been
badly beaten by Kerry.
• The First Terrorist Web
Videos
It is horrific, but necessary, to
note the most notorious users of
Web video: jihadist terrorists.
2004 brought a succession of
Web videos of terrorist messages
and videos of acts of violence
and murder of hostages.
Previously, Al Qaeda and
terrorist groups sent videotapes
or audio recordings to television
networks, such as Al Jazeera.
Starting in 2004, the terrorists
began webcasting their videos,
65
2005 Politics Online Conference – Web Video 2004: A Breakthrough Technology in
a Breakthrough Year
and international news planning the first-ever Video
organizations rebroadcasting the Town Hall, with constituents e-
Web videos—an infamous mailing questions and the
milestone in Internet history. congressman answering them via
live webcast, in March.
And the list goes on: MoveOn.org’s
groundbreaking political advertisement- • Non-Profits & Think Tanks
making contest, “Bush in 30 Seconds,” Non-profits and think tanks are
and JibJab.com’s breakthrough satire, increasingly turning to Web
the first political flash animation to video—indeed, have led the way
generate true national attention and in the political arena—to get
more. their message out, via event
webcasts, online documentaries
If 2004’s revolutions were not televised and video news releases.
at least they were webcast. As television
and computers converge via technology, • Public Relations Firms
such as on demand Many PR firms are
video, digital video The news media have and will advising clients to use
recorders and wired Web video as direct
home networks, they
continue to lead the way
public communications
are becoming towards putting more video on and in some cases as a
increasingly the same the Web. Web video news
thing. Their Web video content is release. One famous
attracting advertising, recent example is
Beyond 2004 including more Web video and Michael Jackson’s
rich media ads. Web video message to
What does the future supporters on the eve
hold for political Web of his trial, which was
video? Its use will continue to spread by rebroadcast by several network
groups including: and cable newscasts.

• Members of Congress • The News Media

Members of Congress are
increasingly using the medium to
reach constituents. In addition to
basic Web site welcome and
issue videos, many are using
videos to reach constituents for
special events and targeted
messages. Democrats Bob
Menendez and Pete Stark both
webcast responses to the
President’s State of the Union.
Stark’s video was viewed by
some 5400 constituents. And
Congressman Earl Blumenauer is
The news media have and will
continue to lead the way—by fits
and starts—at putting video on
the Web. From C-SPAN, which
has been providing live
simultaneous webcasts since
1997, to MSNBC.com, which is
increasingly is living up to its
original goal of being a true
multimedia news site, to the
washingtonpost.com and
nytimes.com, the giants of the
print media world who are
increasingly Web video media

66
2005 Politics Online Conference – Web Video 2004: A Breakthrough Technology in
a Breakthrough Year
outlets, the news media continue
to break new ground. And
increasingly, their Web video
content is attracting advertising,
including Web video/rich media
ads.
And what about candidates and
campaigns? Unfortunately for them, the
Web video revolution will come about
only when the campaign’s consultants,
senior and communications staff or
candidates themselves view the
technology as worthwhile and make it
happen. Logistical concerns—the ever-
scarce campaign manpower, fears of
complicating campaign message and the
lack of Web video/videography skills
and capacity—are barriers to the new
technology.
But the biggest barrier is the resistance
of the campaign’s traditional
consultants. Most traditional media
consultants see the Internet only as a
fundraising tool and Web video as a
distraction. (For some campaigns—ones
with extremely undynamic candidates or
ones that do not garner any TV
coverage—they’re right). And when
traditional TV or Internet firms have
offered Web services, it has rarely been
successful because either Internet firms
have not had the capacity in-house (since
Web videography requires a unique mix
of political, video and Web skills) or TV
firms expect TV fees for Web video
services—making it cost-prohibitive. So
long as that is the case, campaigns will
not put this tool to work for them.
The good news is that some consulting
firms increasingly understand the need
to offer integrated media services
including messaging, content production
and delivery across many different
media—TV, mail, e-mail, Internet and
Web video. They understand that even
if Web video is not the moneymaker in
the same way TV and other media are,
bundling the services of professional,
cost-effective Web video producers
gives them a tremendous marketing
advantage, if not an enormous source of
new revenue. These firms will have a
comparative advantage in dealing with
clients as they add Web video to their
services.
Perhaps the most likely scenarios where
Web video services will go from a
presidential bell-and-whistle to a
downballot mainstay are the campaign
committees. Just as the Democratic
National Committee and Republican
National Committee already produce
Web video, the day is coming when the
Senate, Congressional and other
committees will have in-house
videographers who regularly post their
parties’ candidates TV coverage on the
Web, who coordinate with campaign
consultants to get content from TV
shoots and who even travel periodically
to tape candidates around the country.
And because digital video and Web
media is so cheap, the committees could
easily implement such a plan without
exceeding FEC coordinated contribution
limits.
So stay tuned. The Web video
explosion—and the webcast of the
revolution—has just begun.
The views in this article are the views of the
contributors only and do not reflect the views of the
Politics Online Conference or the Institute for Politics,
Democracy & the Internet.
67
At the Touch of a
Button:
Maximizing an E-mail
List to Mobilize Millions Mindy Finn

Who would have predicted that with the touch of a Mindy Finn is the
button, millions of people could be spurred to Deputy eCampaign
Director at the
action? The Bush-Cheney ’04 e-mail list provided Republican National
the opportunity to do just that. Committee. She was a
member of the
Throughout the campaign, an e-mail sent to as eCampaign team at
Bush-Cheney ’04.
many as seven million eActivists would be
followed by immediate action. The e-mail was
simple, one-page worth of motivation, but the
actions that followed were key. And although our
ultimate goal of winning votes remained constant
and the end to which most every message was the
means, the specific purposes of our
communications varied, thereby providing several
positive test cases for future e-ail marketing.

In March we started our e-mail
campaign to promote the first National
Party for the President Day, where the
goal was to organize 2004 “Parties for
the President” across the nation.
Although, the Party tool had been
announced a few weeks earlier and a fair
number of Parties had sprouted up, this
message was our first national campaign
to unite supporters behind the same
cause on a single day. In many respects,
this was a test case for future campaigns
within the campaign to mobilize our
grassroots, including get-out-the-vote
(GOTV).
With the rallying cry of standing with
President Bush and Vice President
Cheney, the send button was clicked and
the message started landing in e-mail
boxes from coast to coast. Within
minutes, our first Parties were set up—
complete with host, venue and list of
invitees. And within the first post-e-
mail hours, hundreds of Parties had been
created, events that earlier that day
didn’t consume a single thought in our
Party hosts’ minds.
By Thursday, April 29, the National
Party Day, we had not only surpassed
our goal of 2004 parties, we motivated
more than 5,000 party hosts to hold

68
2005 Politics Online Conference – At the Touch of a Button: Maximizing an E-mail
List to Mobilize Millions
parties. That Thursday night, nearly Even something as simple as
100,000 participants joined in a recommending a good book to our list
conference call with the Vice President. became a major event. Occasionally, the
campaign would suggest a new
After Party Day reports publication that
came back with 5,245 To keep activists engaged, captured the
Parties held in all 50 vary your messages. compassionate
states for our first Asking them to sign repeated conservatism of the
National Day, we upped petitions does not encourage President.
the ante for the next
round. In July, we
a sense of community. In August, we sent an e-
drove voter registration However, sharing mail highlighting
instead of volunteer information or news relevant journalist Ronald
signups. We used the to a political community Kessler’s new book, A
conference call with our goes further to motivate the Matter of Character:
special guest, Mrs. grassroots. Inside the White House
Laura Bush, and of George W. Bush.
testimonials from those who hosted
Parties the first round to sell the tool to The impact was dramatic. Before the
new hosts. Again, the program was touch of the button, A Matter of
promoted via e-mail and the success was Character’s sales ranking on
undeniable. More than 7,500 people Amazon.com was 161, driven by Kessler
hosted Parties resulting in tens of and his publisher’s own marketing.
thousands of new registered voters. Twelve hours later, overnight I might
President Bush jumped on the call to say add, the ranking jumped to number
thanks to those participating. three.

By the end of the campaign, e-mail A month later, an e-mail promoting

promotion for Parties for the President
had led to 30,000 Parties hosted, 53
percent in targeted swing states, with
over 470,000 people attending. In the
closing days of the campaign, phone and
walk lists were provided to hosts and
hundreds of thousands of voters were
driven to the polls through Walk the
Vote parties.
Kessler’s book along with six others
from the “Bush-Cheney ’04 Suggested
Reading List” produced results that were
just as notable. We watched books
rocket up the Amazon charts based on
that simple e-mail—a book ranked
21,042 before the click of a button
jumped to 2,221; others moved from
8,709 to 1,896 and from 367 to 97.

To keep activists engaged, we varied our
calls to action. Asking activists to sign
repeated petitions or make repeated
donations does not encourage a sense of
community. Sharing information or
news relevant to a political community
goes further to motivate the grassroots.
We had our e-mail marketing down to a
science by crunch time, the final GOTV
push Election Week. For this most
important effort, we built on a technique
we tested out during the Iowa Caucus
and New Hampshire primary.

69
2005 Politics Online Conference – At the Touch of a Button: Maximizing an E-mail
List to Mobilize Millions
Targeted e-mails, based on the
recipient’s street address, included maps
and driving directions to the voter’s
polling location. During the Iowa
Caucus pilot, we received reports of
Iowans carrying their e-mail with the
map and directions into their polling
place, having used it as their guide to get
out and vote.
keep them engaged and active, sharpen
your message, think outside the box and
make your activists feel that they’re a
vital part of the team.
The views in this article are the views of the
contributors only and do not reflect the views of the
Politics Online Conference or the Institute for Politics,
Democracy & the Internet.

For the November election, the e-mail

messages came from the President’s
parents, President George H.W. and
Barbara Bush, Mrs. Laura Bush, and the
President himself—all e-mail senders
sure to incite voters to open them.

The GOTV e-mail campaign helped us

claim victory, but another effort—one
that had nothing to do with the campaign
operations—had perhaps a more
profound effect than any other.

When President Ronald Reagan passed

away suddenly, countless numbers of
Americans were seeking an outlet to
express their emotions. Our inbox was
flooded with e-mails expressing great
sadness.

The campaign shifted all online

activities to pay tribute to Reagan’s
memory and sent an e-mail to eActivists
encouraging them to post comments on a
living memorial. Tens of thousands
responded to pay their respects. The
outpouring of grief brought to light how
the power of a list can be channeled for
cathartic purposes.

Access to lists and the power of e-mail

now allow political campaigns to
accomplish goals faster, more
effectively, more efficiently and with
less relative manpower. The touch of a
button can send millions into action. To

70
Peaking around the
Curtain
“Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once
in awhile.” - Phil Noble
Ann Yoders
Last year I worked for a local Web development-
Ann Yoders is the CEO
consulting firm whose goal for the year was to and founder of The
become more visible in the field of non-profit & Bronx Cash Register
political technology. I suggested the company Consulting Company
and a founding member
hold a series of roundtables (we scheduled 10 for of The Progressive
the year although only 2 took place): it would cost Project.
the company little, allowed for lots of soft
marketing and would illustrate to the community
that the company was a thought leader in the
industry. It was not only a great way for my client
to gain some indirect PR, but it also added value to
the sector we’ve been engaged in for years.

The series turned out to be only two
events (I moved on to other contracts
and the company failed to follow
through with the other roundtables). The
two events were a success, bringing
together over 40 influentials (from
groups such as the DCCC, AARP,
RightClick Strategies, Grassroots
Enterprise, CTSG/Kintera, Republican
Communications Association, Youth
Vote, ACLU, NGP Software, etc.) in the
sector for an engaging back and forth
discussion on what we’ve learned and
what’s ahead. The client received some
much needed face time and contacts, and
the series influenced the sector in
beginning to engage stakeholders on
broader, more vision-orientated topics.
What stands out from those sessions?
For me one comment specifically: “It’s
10:00am on the first day of the
revolution.” Phil Noble said this at our
second roundtable and nothing could be
further from the truth. And, this coming
from the man who saw the impact of
online technologies on politics before
most people.
With the success of raising money
online, blogs, open source software, etc.
this year, I say we still have not
scratched the service. And frankly,
folks, (here comes the wet blanket) we
have not seen much that is new.
And that is an exciting thing.
Why? Because check out what we have
to look forward to:
1. New Energy

71
2005 Politics Online Conference – Peaking around the Curtain

There is some serious new energy being in ways unprecedented for all the
pumped into the field. Look at the reasons (and more) listed above.
fabulous work of The Progressive
Project, and Personal Democracy Forum By the time Politics Online Conference
as new thought leaders in the field. New 2006 rolls around we should at least be
firms and consultants getting ready for
are popping up—both “Echo Boomers” were born lunch.
on the left and right. between 1982 and 1995.
2. Big Bucks for Big There are nearly 80 million of
Thoughts them, and as they age, they The views in this article are
Some serious cash is will become the next dominant the views of the contributors
only and do not reflect the
now available to smart, generation of Americans. views of the Politics Online
promising ideas in Conference or the Institute
for Politics, Democracy & the Internet.
Democratic politics. We’re building our
30-year machine and technology is a big
part of that.

3. Babies of Baby Boomers

“Echo boomers” are the largest
generation of young people since the
sixties. And they’re plugged in.
They’re the first generation to have
grown up with a computer at home
(likely). They were born between 1982
and 1995 and there are nearly 80 million
of them. And as they age, they will be
become the next dominant generation of
Americans.

4. Cheaper Technology, More

Strategy
Technology is becoming more and more
affordable. No longer do organizations
need to invest $40K in a Web site and
then be financially tapped to do much
else like grow e-mail lists. It is time to
start thinking creatively about online
communications again and that opens
the door for smart, innovative strategists
to help campaigns and organizations
reach beyond the long-hanging fruit.

I predict that this year will be the year of

innovation—big ideas coming to fruition

72
The Missing Element for
a Happy Medium:
Partisanship
David Lytel
The glory days of state-run media had to be the
years of DeGaulle’s rule over France, when neither David Lytel is the
voices critical of the government nor commercials founder of Left.org, a
advertising products could be broadcast on radio or community site for
progressive activists,
television. Not surprisingly, this produced a ring and Majority Media,
of transmitters around the periphery of France that LLC.
broadcast both commercials and the latest news the
government did not want French citizens to know
about. Control of the airwaves in such a heavy-
handed manner was both economically and
politically untenable, although Gaullist France
surely tried.

What is now happening in the U.S. is
remarkably similar, although rather than
being state-run the mechanisms used to
ban dangerous facts and ideas have been
privatized. The more than 50 controlling
corporate players of 20 years ago have
been reduced to just nine today, and in
television, our dominant medium, it is
down to just six. With the narrowing
base of corporate ownership comes an
ever-shrinking window of acceptable
political discourse. It isn’t just breasts
that are outlawed; increasingly it is
dissent, too. Anything that can possibly
be construed as bad for Bush is banned
and truths too bold to be handled in print
are quietly distributed via the Internet,
where there impact is muted because, the
tautology complete, they never appeared
in the paper.
Look at just three examples of the news
that is now unfit to publish. By the
admission of Daniel Okrent, the public
editor of the New York Times, the
Times had a story revealing that Bush
wore a wireless transmitter during his
debates with Senator Kerry to help him
answer the questions posed to him. He
has written that it was not published
because the story arose too close to the
election and the proof failed to convince
top-level executives. But, of course, not
only were the photos, and the story
widely disseminated on the Internet, but
numerous witnesses who had worked
with Bush as translators and other aides
corroborated the essential truthfulness of
the story.
Another example of the narrowness of
acceptable discourse in the commercial
news media can be seen in coverage of

73
2005 Politics Online Conference – The Missing Element for a Happy Medium:
Partisanship
the implosion of Riggs Bank in Only in Nevada can you read about the
Washington. Riggs has admitted to investigation of the Republican
charges of money laundering, a service it contractor who obtained voter
provided for a number of registrations from citizens and then
archconservative dictators with discarded all but those who registered
deplorable records on human rights. The Republican. This contractor is under
commercial news media cover the story investigation there, under indictment in
as if the central challenge is finding a Oregon and operated in six other states
buyer for this enterprise rather than as well. In all likelihood an order of
bringing the miscreants to justice, magnitude more registrations were
permitting the bank’s owners, the trashed than Bush’s narrow 21,000-vote
Albritten family, to remain unchallenged margin of “victory” in Nevada. As
and unquestioned. many as hundreds of thousands of
Nevada Democrats
The final example, the Where has news and could have been
one that has pushed the discussion of these topics prevented from voting
paranoid left, the non- gone? this way.
partisan clean elections
activists, the third party The only place left for them And then there is Ohio.
wannabees and the to go—onto the Internet. Maybe the irregularities
Democratic wing of the were random and on a
Democratic Party into a very minor scale but few African Americans
uncomfortable alliance is the dubious or college students in Ohio believe this.
claim by Republicans that Bush’s On Election Day they faced off against
victory in the 2004 presidential election Republicans dispatched to suppress the
was accomplished without fraud or vote totals of the opposition and inflate
deception. According to public opinion the totals for the party in power, which
polls there are more than 30 million are crimes in Columbus just as they are
Americans who do not believe the crimes in Kiev. The videotape of whites
sanitized version of history. (Republicans) trying to prevent blacks
(Democrats) from voting is almost as
Yet, only the press in Florida has written repulsive as anything filmed in a polling
about Florida Congressman Tom place Alabama or Mississippi during the
Feeney’s role in directing a NASA civil rights era.
contractor to create software to change
the results on electronic voting These are but three current topics that
machines, charges the contractor in cannot be talked about in the commercial
question admits are true. news media. Where has news and
discussion of these topics gone? The
Only the press in New Mexico has only place left for them to go—onto the
written about the astronomically high Internet. There are also stories highly
number of “undervotes” there, well salient to a right-leaning audience that
beyond the 6,000-vote margin between go unpublished for similar reasons. In
Bush and Kerry. fact, everyone who wishes to speak
freely and openly about political issues
fights the tremendously powerful forces

74
2005 Politics Online Conference – The Missing Element for a Happy Medium:
Partisanship
of homogenization. The commercial
news media only wants mild
controversies because their goal is to
create inoffensive products that are first
and foremost commercial vehicles with
near-monopoly status in their markets.
Just as newspapers and magazines
campaigned strenuously but futilely in
the 1950s and 1960s against the loss of
their audience to television, calling it
superficial and ephemeral and other
names, the old media now disparage the
new as being unfiltered or partisan or
unprincipled. The new incumbents are
afraid of just what happened to the old
incumbents. Controlled news is boring
and the audience is gradually moving
away from the privatized state-run media
and into the only space available where
robust democratic discussion can take
place.
If we are to remain a democracy we
urgently need to use the protections of
the First Amendment to force the truth
out into the open. But few of the
businesses protected by the First
Amendment care to use it for that
anymore, hence the rise of citizen
blogging and non-commercial Web
publishing. In the face of an ever-
shrinking range of topics that are
acceptable to our corporate overseers,
the Net is the only open, democratic
medium that reaches a mass audience
but has yet to be captured and neutered
by big money. How long that remains
true depends on how clever we are at
defending the First Amendment rights
that the community of licensed public
communicators has abandoned.
This commercial self-censorship of
stories that could trouble the officials of
our hyper-partisan one party government
is more effective than anything the
censors of an earlier time could devise.
But it also presents an opportunity to
reintroduce one of the main
differentiating elements of an earlier era.
At the turn of the 20th century when
newspaper competition was at its height,
partisanship was one of the central ways
the papers distinguished themselves
from one another and secured the loyalty
of their readers. It has only been in the
relatively brief period so far of the
broadcast era that politically charged
material has been unwelcome. In a
multichannel environment with intense
competition for attention, there is every
reason to believe that partisanship can be
successfully reintroduced as a way of
gaining and holding an audience.
Partisanship isn’t a substitute for good
writing, clean presentation and adequate
promotion. But it can help build trust
and allegiance among the audience,
particularly in the Internet era in which
online services with a great deal of user-
generated content (eBay, Yahoo, and
AOL are all examples) are some of the
most commercially successful.
Getting it right involves offering site
visitors the right combination of
information and mobilization. Operating
a successful political Web site in this
new era means understanding both how
to lead and how to follow and when to
choose one over the other, which of
course is learned only by experience.
Like other Web-based publishers on
both the left and the right, we continue
to experiment with the right mixture of
fuel and air and study the effects of
moisture, season, temperature and other
elements so we can get just the right
amount of controversy to yield
measured, active engagement.
75
2005 Politics Online Conference – The Missing Element for a Happy Medium:
Partisanship
Remember, the central difference campaign has been raised and spent.
between an interactive medium like the The best campaign sites are those that do
Internet and a broadcast medium like not have undecided voters in mind as
television is that the only people we their principle audience but rather the
reach have a non-zero level of interest in campaign’s own partisans. When they
politics. Those who are not at least a are good they succeed at pulling them
little bit interested in politics just don’t into the campaign and getting them to
point their browsers in our direction. give some of their time, money and
Television was, is, and will remain the energies.
medium campaigns will use to frighten
undecided voters because only by And this may be seem perverse at first,
lobbing a commercial into the middle of but if you think about it is entirely
a popular television program faster than rational: most visitors to political Web
the viewer can reach the sites don’t want to
remote can political Most visitors to political debate people who are
communicators get past Web sites don’t want to committed to voting for
the strong perceptual debate people who are the other candidate.
barriers the audience They see it as a waste
puts up. When you ask committed to voting for the of time. They are
whether you want to their candidate. They see it online to do something
receive more news as a waste of time. They are with their very limited
about politics—which online to do something with free time to help their
is what we are asking their very limited free time to candidate win. Mostly
them whenever we offer that means they want to
help candidates win.
up another Web site— participate in a
the overwhelming majority of the conversation about tactics and strategies
citizenry say no. with people who they already agree with
on goals and become more effective
I think this is the main reason that organizers and advocates for their
PoliticsNow, Grassroots, Speakout and a candidate.
dozen other commercial endeavors in the
online politics arena have failed. No one Interactive media that is too cold is just
cheers for the league; they cheer for plain boring and people won’t consult it.
teams and especially for the star players. Make it too hot and you get threats and
There is just no way for anyone to flame wars rather than structured debate
become the central place that people go and meaningful interaction. But when
to debate about politics. The Internet is you manage user-to-user interaction
far too open and diffuse for that. But successfully the Internet can be what it
people are drawn very strongly to should be—a happy medium.
candidates and campaigns if we can
move quickly enough to take advantage
of the mass public’s fleeting interest in The views in this article are the views of the
contributors only and do not reflect the views of the
politics, most of which comes in the Politics Online Conference or the Institute for Politics,
final weeks, long after all the money in a Democracy & the Internet.

76
The New Digital Divide:
What It Means for
Grassroots Going
Forward
Cheryl Contee
The term “digital divide” was originally coined to
define the gap between white and non-white use of Cheryl Contee is a
senior consultant at
online technology, particularly during the Internet Issue Dynamics Inc., a
boom in the mid-late 1990s. Since the turn of the Washington D.C. based
century, however, recent studies show that the public affairs and
digital divide is shifting dramatically. The new strategic alliances firm.
digital dividing line is not race or ethnicity but
education and income. In short, Internet use is
becoming a class-based activity. Organizations
must take notice if they wish to maximize their
advocacy and fundraising efforts. Below, this
article examines current patterns of Internet use in
America and also draws conclusions for political
parties, non-profit organizations and corporations
that are planning active outreach campaigns.

The Facts about African- America.

Americans and Hispanic-
Furthermore, their rate of adoption of the
Americans Online Today
latest Internet technologies is increasing
at a higher rate than
The digital divide is
swiftly closing. Latinos, Internet Penetration by many other groups. For
African-Americans U.S. example, African-
other minorities are Household Ethnicity Americans and English-
speaking Hispanics are
online in stronger 2001 2007 more likely than Whites
numbers than ever Caucasian and other 62% 81% to use instant messaging
before. In fact, as the
African-American 45% 69% and participate in online
level of education
Hispanic 45% 68% chat rooms and
increases, Hispanic
Asian-American 63% 82%
discussion groups,
online usage actually
Source: Jupiter Research
according to the Pew
tends to match or
Internet and American
exceed that of Whites in

77
2005 Politics Online Conference – The New Digital Divide: What It Means for
Grassroots Going Forward
Life Project. rising Internet penetration to create a
significant cultural shift in how Black
The Pew Internet and American Life Americans communicate with each
Center found that 62 percent of English- other. The African-American community
speaking Hispanics were online in is becoming a strong online presence and
August 2003. This represents a potential is creating its own unique identity in the
maximum online audience for outreach space.
efforts of 24.4 million people. The U.S.
Census reports that out of 28.8 million Research from Selig Center for
who speak Spanish at home in 2002, Economic Growth, Terry College of
over half say they speak English very Business, The University of Georgia
well. Another 10 million speak English indicates that the nation’s Black buying
only. power will surge from
Race, ethnicity and $688 billion in 2002
Last Feb 2003, education to $921 billion in
ComScore Networks 2008 when almost
estimated that there Goes nine cents of every
was an online Online dollar spent will be
audience of 15 Whites, education level from an African-
million Latinos for Less than High School 24% American consumer.
2002, growing at a High School 46
rate of 20 percent per Some College 73 Comparatively, White
year. That far eclipses College + 83 buying power is
African-American Blacks, education level expected to reach
usage, which was Less than high school 15% $8.50 trillion by 2008,
pegged at 10 million High School 40 representing a 25.9
(Nielsen//NetRatings) Some College 61 increase over 2003,
for 2002. So the College + 76 while African-
online Hispanics, education level Americans will see a
Hispanic audience 34 percent increase
Less than High School 26%
today is somewhere over the same period.
High School 42
between 20 and 24 Some College 71
million people. It’s a A recent (Mar 2004)
College + 87 Jupiter Research
safe assumption that
the Black online report found that 27.7
Source: Pew Internet & American Life
audience has also Project, March-May 2002 Survey. N-3553. percent of Hispanics
increased Margin of error +/- 2% online will make at
dramatically by a least one purchase
factor of millions during the same using the Internet this year, edging out
period. blacks by 0.6 percent. That is behind
Caucasians (45.5 percent) and Asian-
Black and Latino Online $$$ Americans (55.8 percent), but it shows
promise. Fifty-eight percent of Hispanics
The surge of African-Americans online have engaged in e-commerce at least
combines phenomenal increases in once in their online history.
buying power, a growing population and

78
2005 Politics Online Conference – The New Digital Divide: What It Means for
Grassroots Going Forward

Implications for Advocacy and

Fundraising

Now more than ever, the time is right to

reach out to minorities that may have
been overlooked
before using online Race, ethnicity and income
technology. The old
stereotypes of who’s Goes
online and who is not Online
just don’t apply Whites, household income
anymore. Almost any Less than $20,000 32%
organization stands to annual*
gain from more $20,000-$50,000 57
careful, targeted More than $50,000 82
outreach to those who Blacks, household income
can both support the Less than $20,000 annual 25%
organization and $20,000-$50,000 55
benefit from its
More than $50,000 65
programs.
Hispanics, household income
Less than $20,000 annual 28%
Mainline political
$20,000-$50,000 60
parties and civil rights
organizations in More than $50,000 82
* The correct way to read the first line
particular risk losing
is: 32 percent of Whites living in
valuable, active and households earning less than $20,000
affluent audiences to
upstarts if they do not build serious
online programs targeted to well-
educated, high income minorities—a
group of people numbering in the tens of
millions. Yet, there is a danger that over-
emphasis on online organizing will
generate a class-based backlash if online
activity becomes associated with elitism.
Efforts must be made to bridge the
digital divide opening among those
Americans making $35,000 or less and
those who have a high school education
or lower.

The views in this article are the views of the

contributors only and do not reflect the views of the
Politics Online Conference or the Institute for Politics,
Democracy & the Internet.

79
With Dean Now at the
DNC, an Extreme
Makeover Is Required of
the GOP! Larry Purpuro

Larry Purpuro is the

With Howard Dean’s recent election as chairman founder of Rightclick
of the DNC, it’s a perfect opportunity for the Strategies, an Internet
consulting firm, and is a
Grand Old Party to give itself a rigorous self-exam former Deputy Chief of
of its own online activities. While Dean is Staff of the Republican
frequently cast as unscripted and volatile, he is National Committee.
also the world champion of the Web, the candidate
who mastered the Internet like no politician before
him. While some pundits may be predicting
another “I have a Scream” meltdown from the new
DNC chairman, there are warning signs from the
last election cycle that the turbo-powered, bottom
up success of Web activism fits the Democrat like
a glove.

Yes, the Democrats are struggling
nationally with an identity crisis and a
failure to respond to shifts in voter
interests. But Dean brings to his new job
a potential knock out blow to the
Republicans: the ability and the
experience to harness the power of the
Internet. It is worth noting Dean’s
asterisk ranked candidacy raised over
$50 million, more than two-thirds of
which came through online donations.
The former Vermont governor also
enlisted online 400,000 volunteers
nationally, turning an unknown software,
Meetup.com into a “can’t do without”
Web tool. His entire campaign, it could
be argued, grew exponentially from his
team’s mastery of the Internet.
The 2004 record shows that in addition
to Dean, the eventual nominee John
Kerry and several Democrat groups all
successfully tapped into what is now
called the “Fifth Network.” Because
President Bush won, no one has paid
much attention to fact that the
Democrats outraised the GOP in online
support by $145 million to $15 million.
What’s worse is that the Kerry campaign
raised $26 million in the first 90 days of
the election year, more than Bush-
Cheney did in the whole cycle. Many
Web experts would also suggest the
GOP was also out hustled in online
communications. One illustration of the
creative deficit was the fact that the
most-viewed piece of political media
during the campaign cycle was not from

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2005 Politics Online Conference – With Dean Now at the DNC, an Extreme
Makeover Is Required of the GOP
the campaign’s hired experts but from Here are some areas the GOP needs to
two amateurs. According to Net fold into their online strategy:
Nielsen, the animated online video “This
Land,” produced by the Spiridellis Use the studio model to tap a
Brothers, was seen by more than 50 wide source of creative
million Americans, proof positive of the
messaging
powerful surge the Internet has taken in
political wars. Finally, there is the
advent of MoveOn.org, a media and Broadband growth spells the end of
Web savvy left of center group that rose static content. A recent Pew study
from the Clinton impeachment trial and suggested 80 percent of Internet users
has continued to grow in strength. With now have broadband access, either at
more than two million home or work. The
members, MoveOn is The challenge for sharp increase in
an online 800-pound Republicans now, however, broadband means Web
gorilla that dwarfs surfers will no longer
is to compete in an
anything on the GOP be satisfied with static
entertainment-saturated HTML pages. For any
side.
society with a much more online communications
Frankly speaking, the advanced e-strategy—a skills strategy to succeed, the
online trend line is not set that must emulate to a savvy organization will
all that encouraging to certain extent the creativity be required to draw on
the GOP. The of Pixar and the e-commerce Web artists skilled in
challenge for Flash animation, video
sophistication of Amazon. and Rich Media. To an
Republicans now,
however, is to compete ironic degree, the GOP
in an entertainment-saturated society needs to refashion itself after a
with a much more advanced e-strategy— Hollywood studio. The Committee itself
a skills set that must emulate to a certain cannot expect to be the sole source of
extent the creativity of Pixar and the e- creativity; rather it should be looking to
commerce sophistication of Amazon. contract with a diverse group of creative
artists, from verbal pugilists like Anne
Gone are the days when the rank and file Coulter to the right wing version of the
(now daily surfing the World Wide Spiridellis. With a minimal amount of
Web) will be appeased with another stale guidance, these outside developers could
news release announcing state co-chairs. be a fabulous communications resource
The task at hand requires more than to the RNC.
simply creating animation e-mails and
selling donor subscriptions online. With Treat online fundraising with
a captive, loyal audience of more than 5 the respect it deserves
million online activists, the RNC must
undergo an extreme makeover if it is to To catch the Democrats in online
have truly groundbreaking digital fundraising, the RNC needs a dedicated
outreach. e-commerce department. It needs to be
on equal footing with direct mail and
event fundraising. As it stands, online

81
2005 Politics Online Conference – With Dean Now at the DNC, an Extreme
Makeover Is Required of the GOP
fundraising seems to be an afterthought
as evidence by the RNC failure to
upgrade its five-year-old contribution
software. Moreover, the RNC would be
better served by a focused online
fundraising group of Web specialists
dedicated to tapping the vast potential 5
million e-mail activists. Do the math:
Just a ½ percent response to an offer to
buy the $19.95 GOP coffee mug would
gross almost $500,000 per pitch. With
focused experts at the helm and
improved technology those numbers
would grow exponentially.
Embrace, don’t ignore, bloggers
The growing blog-o-sphere has an
antagonistic relationship with the
established political machine. They have
evolved from a scattered collection of
talking heads to a strong counter-culture
alternative to mainstream pundits. The
Daily Kos, a left of center blog has a
monthly readership of 400,000. Because
of their numbers, these new media
outlets carry legitimate influence. The
GOP should deploy a few
communication staffers whose sole focus
is bloggers. Like herding cats, the
bloggers’ fierce independent streak will
prevent them from taking full marching
orders from the Party. That does not
mean they should be ignored or attacked.
They should be embraced and cultivated.
“Open source” online organizing
tools
Through your leadership, the Bush-
Cheney campaign did A+ work in online
organizing, allowing supporters to do
everything from order an absentee ballot
online to feeding private websites with a
pro-Bush news stream. To keep pace
with technology, the RNC should
consider open-source solutions for
organization tools. This would allow the
ingenuity of a 10,000 independent
programmers to be harnessed rather than
one or two contract vendors. Less
centralization begets more innovation.
It’s the Republican way.
The value of the Web in politics cannot
be overstated when one takes note a
recent Pew Study of the Internet
behavior. That study showed that more
people went online to search political
information (21 percent) than bank
online or search the web for driving
directions. Dean will surely bring to his
new DNC spot an emphasis on
strengthening the party’s Internet efforts.
No one is proposing the RNC plaster its
Web site with slapstick and jest. But the
fact is, despite the vast amount of money
spent in 2004—on testing, on focus
groups, on production costs—the
seasoned pros were bested by grassroots
outsiders. A good case can be made that
a failure to act now, with a bottom-up,
creative centered approach will be a
cause for future election losses.
If the GOP does not act aggressively, the
Web is likely to become for the Left’s
what talk radio has been for the Right.
The views in this article are the views of the
contributors only and do not reflect the views of the
Politics Online Conference or the Institute for Politics,
Democracy & the Internet.
82
The Internet and
Election 2004: Grant Reeher and Steve
Davis

Where We Went and Grant Reeher is an

associate professor of
Political Science at
Where We Might Go Syracuse University and
a visiting fellow at the
Institute for Politics,
It was obvious that the electoral terrain in Democracy & the
the summer and fall of 2004 would provide Internet. He is a
fertile ground for advancing the Internet speaker at the 2005
Politics Online
politically. A controversial administration Conference.
elected on the slimmest of margins (or non-
margins) was running for re-election on a Steve Davis is an
divisive war, which resulted from a associate professor at
the SI Newhouse School
generation-defining attack on our soil. of Public
Groups had mobilized extensively through Communications at
the Internet, both for and against the war. A Syracuse University.
dark-horse candidate for the Democratic They are the coauthors
nomination had ridden the Internet to front- of Click on Democracy.
runner status in a matter of months and then
even more rapidly had collapsed.

By the time John Kerry had clearly
emerged as the nominee, both campaigns
expected a super close race. And thus
they fought with an every-vote-matters
intensity that featured not a top-down
approach, but a peer-to-peer citizen
model. They recruited volunteers, many
of them online and asked them to
personally press their candidates’ case
with others or to encourage other likely
volunteers to actually show up at local
party headquarters. This was a dramatic
and important improvement over 2000,
when the major campaigns for the most
part simply asked the members of their
online communities to “pass this e-mail
along to 10 friends.” The Internet teams
were integrally involved in the overall
campaign strategy and the day-to-day
electoral thrust-and-parry. Internet
directors played authentic roles the top
echelons of the campaigns.
The Bush and Kerry camps provided
online tools to facilitate their offline,
“get-personal” strategy. Their supporters
arranged house parties and invited
dozens of friends and strangers to attend
by issuing online invitations, and
volunteers also downloaded “walk lists”
of neighbors whom they canvassed and
registered. The Bush camp—in one
particularly innovative idea—created
online “Virtual Precincts.” This was
especially empowering for individuals in
non-swing states who felt the election

83
2005 Politics Online Conference – The Internet and Election 2004: Where We
Went and Where We Went Wrong
was passing them by. College participation—“Astroturf”—cookie-
professors like ourselves, for example, cutter letters and even spam.
could sit in New York—a Kerry state
from Day One—and create a Virtual Of course, every online tool and every
Precinct of teachers in a half-dozen online strategy had one goal in mind: to
swing states, lobbying collect money, to turn
them by e-mail, phone The power of peer-to-peer out votes for the party
call and letter—to vote influence far out-trumps and to win. If civic
for Bush. The idea: the engagement was
power of peer-to-peer spam from the campaign. furthered, it was a
influence, teacher to happy byproduct.
teacher, far out-trumps spam from the Almost certainly it was. Turnout overall
campaign. advanced by nine percentage points from
2000 to 2004, and the figures for young
Bush online strategist Chuck DeFeo, and voters improved similarly. Anecdotal
Zack Exley, who worked for Kerry, both evidence of the Internet’s role is
stressed in recent interviews that they encouraging, from the citizens who tell
used the Web to break down barriers to personal stories to the campaign Web
participation. DeFeo noted that citizens organizers who report that many
who had never canvassed their volunteers were newcomers.
neighborhoods before downloaded walk
lists of 20 or so names at a time during All of this said, there should be no
this campaign and spread the door-to- mistake that the Bush and Kerry
door work over a week or more. In past campaigns were command-and-control
elections, volunteers had to find and call operations. Each had specific tasks for
the phone number for their local volunteers to accomplish and each used
headquarters, inquire about when the the Internet so supporters could report
next canvass was scheduled, then set back when the job was done. Kerry sent
aside the day dictated by the party to do more e-mails than Bush and asked for
it (often an already-busy Saturday). In money more often, but that was more a
these new ways, the Internet was function of the needs of the challenger
embraced by the traditional campaigns versus the incumbent than a difference in
as an incredibly efficient way to put the online strategy. The Bush campaign
power in the hands of could literally afford to
their supporters. Turnout overall advanced be more creative. But
nine percentage points from as both camps
Sometimes the Internet recognized, it does no
was used in ways that 2000-2004. The figures for good to recruit
were not all that young voters improved volunteers unless
exciting for similarly. headquarters can get
professionals in the them organized and
media, particularly print. Both unless it can effectively track and direct
campaigns provided easy online tools what the troops are doing. Failing that,
that supporters could use to write letters volunteer efforts are inefficient at best
to the editor and to call local talk radio, and worthless at worst.
and this often produced faux grassroots

84
2005 Politics Online Conference – The Internet and Election 2004: Where We
Went and Where We Went Wrong
The Dean campaign, for all its glamour that they were the most significant forces
in the online world, was famously in bringing people into the political
disorganized (part of this was process, particularly in a more
intentional, and part of it—no doubt the permanent way. Beyond the traditional
better part of it—was the result of a campaigns, much was happening on the
campaign structure that simply could not Internet during the election season, and
keep up). Dean volunteers boasted about much of it was of the true grassroots
how decentralized the campaign was; variety.
volunteers who sought feedback or
direction to help channel their energy There were dozens, if not hundreds, of
say they were told, “Don’t tell us what online initiatives, too many to know, and
you’re doing, just do it.” This produced they ranged from the irreverent and
a good story in the press tongue-in-cheek—
but not a victory. It appears that the major fuckthevote
Indeed, as the legions of political candidates and large (fthevote.com), where
Deaniacs grew, the political organizations were sex was promised to
campaign plane seemed the dominant Internet forces partners in exchange for
to lose altitude while their political support
in Election 2004. But this
gaining speed. Dean’s for anyone but Bush—
candidacy brought claim is somewhat to a personal favorite,
many new people to the contentious, depending on drivingvotes.org. The
process, and many were the dependent variable. founder of drivingvotes
very active via online. Beyond the traditional was Microsoft project
Many vow that they campaigns, much was manager Matthew
will stay involved in Lerner, whose Web
happening on the Internet,
politics in the future; operation was a carpool
some even ran for and much of it was of the site for voters on the
elective office in 2004. true grassroots variety. left, most of them in the
Most encouraging, quite non-swing states ruled
a number say that the political system by Bush. These folks registered and met
has been demystified because they have one another online at Lerner’s site, then
met local leaders and even become local joined up in the flesh and drove to the
leaders themselves. It is the best kind of swing states on weekends to register
bottom-up medicine for a sick system. voters, sometimes on their own and
sometimes connecting in the field with
From all this, it thus appears that the groups such as ACORN and ACT. (One
major political candidates and large Cardinals baseball fan who lives in
political organizations were the Washington, D.C., tells how he used the
dominant Internet forces in Election drivingvotes site to find Kerry
2004. But this claim is somewhat supporters in Missouri. On vacation
contentious, depending on the dependent during the last weekend of the baseball
variable. Certainly they garnered the season, he met them outside Busch
most attention from the traditional Stadium in St. Louis to register voters.)
media, and perhaps wielded the most
influence on easily measured indicators, Sites such as Lerner’s demonstrate not
like money raised, but it’s far less clear only the unparalleled organizing powers

85
2005 Politics Online Conference – The Internet and Election 2004: Where We
Went and Where We Went Wrong
of the Web, but also how it can bring
together total strangers who are states
apart and would otherwise never meet. The views in this article are the views of the
contributors only and do not reflect the views of the
Politics Online Conference or the Institute for Politics,
Indyvoter, also known as the League of Democracy & the Internet.
Pissed Off Voters, focused on getting
out voters from 17 to 35 years old and
encouraged them to create and distribute
their own “voter guides.” There is big
promise in such sites. While electoral
politics drove the League in 2004, its
mission is to establish a “sustainable”
structure that members will use to
remain active in all sorts of civic
endeavors in the future, not just
elections.

It is difficult to say what comes next.

Who knows what we’ll be able to do
online in 2008. Who knows what
broadband capabilities will present
themselves, and how quickly high-speed
access will spread. The Digital Divide is
closing. The demographics show that
online users are diversifying, which
brings new ideas, new users and new
excitement, as well as new threats to the
political traditionalists. Innovation and
surprise online is a given. But 2004 also
shows that political orthodoxy has been
irreversibly “infected” as well.

The questions we are asking in our

current research are centered on the
grassroots and the individual level
Internet-politics nexus. How does the
process of effectively employing the
Internet occur? What are the particular
mechanisms at work in the way it
becomes interwoven with other more
traditional political activities in helping
to knit together communities and create
more active citizens? By answering
these questions we will have a better
grasp on future possibilities.

86
The Mantra of Business
Technology in Today’s
Campaigns
“Candidate to CEO – Campaign Manger to
CTO” Ravi Singh

Ravi Singh is founder

Few would question the importance of and CEO of
strengthening voter relationships in the candidates’ ElectionMall
agenda. Regardless of today’s campaign size Technologies (EMT), a
technology consistently receives considerable campaign technology
services copany.
attention—and for good reason. Enhancing a
campaign’s value by delivering more money and
more votes is always a good thing! But how? The
same issue is faced by thousands of CEO’s in
today’s business world: how can I increase my
profitability and my customer base?
Consequently, companies embrace a technology
concept called Customer Relationship
Management (CRM).

As CEO of ElectionMall Technologies

Inc., I have found success by applying
campaigns to technology rather than
technology to campaigns. With rapid
changes in the technology world and the
nature of the current campaign industry,
it is impossible for campaigns to take
advantage of all the resources available
on the World Wide Web. The ability to
do so would turn a Campaign Manager
into a full time CTO and a Candidate
into a CEO of a technology company.
However, to neglect these technological
advancements could result in the loss of
money and votes that could be crucial
for victory in a campaign of any size.
What does CRM mean in the business
world? CRM stands for Customer
Relationship Management. Like any hot
new technology concept, CRM suffers
from a lack of a clear definition. To
some in the business world, it is the new
data warehouse; to others it is laptops for
sales representatives; to still others it
means a new call center or Web site.
The CRM is a system of managing
customers, and early adopters of the
system have won by decreasing
overhead, streamlining tasks, enhancing
communication, targeting customers,
increasing profits and increasing brand

87
2005 Politics Online Conference – The Mantra of Business Technology in
Today’s Campaigns
value. All of this is done simply by We know that every campaign has
embracing the technology. different resources available to it. One
campaign may have a large donor base,
While candidates (CEO’s) and campaign while another campaign’s strength lies in
managers (CTO’s) might mistake a a block of supporters. Campaigns might
CRM as a new campaign software or have name recognition or brand value or
voter data center on the Web, my charisma and so on. So, a campaign,
consequent objective is to demystify the like a company, must create an inventory
commonly known business technology of its assets and determine a plan of
term, CRM by first, renaming the “C” in strategic action. How? First a campaign
CRM by calling it Campaign must ASSESS the needs and wants of its
Relationship Management and second, voters, based on records and
illustrating some of the key advantages a participation in previous campaigns,
CRM will have in contemporary demographics and voter history.
campaign and elections. Second, is CHANNEL. Campaigns
must determine the most appropriate and
Strategy First, then CRM effective channels for voter outreach.
Should they use television, e-mail or
Initially, a Web site became the front postal mail? Third, is BRAND.
door of a campaign. Candidates threw up Campaigns need to understand how all
some images, and “poof,” they were off interactions of the candidate with the
and running. Slowly but surely we voters will take place, creating a
moved into a world of particular image of the
With rapid changes in the candidate and
online fundraising,
where dollars were technology world and the increasing voter
found in previously nature of the current participation on
untapped donors and campaign industry, it is Election Day. Where
customers. Now, impossible for campaigns to will the candidate go?
technology has enabled How will he go? What
take advantage of all the
them to contribute and will be his message?
resources available on the And finally, by doing
to buy. But obstacles
have arisen with the World Wide Web. this we can identify
integration of both technology tools and
strategy and management into today’s services in the Campaign Relationship
campaigns. Because technology is Management that will be helpful with
primarily used for these aforementioned the critical interaction of these point and
functions alone, the understanding of the supporting them to reach the chosen
Internet’s value in campaigns has been voters.
equated with other media, such as
television, print and radio advertising. CRM meets three fundamental needs of
This is a flawed understanding in today’s campaigns:
contrast to the CRM model where the
Internet is clearly the centerpiece of a 1. Understanding voter and
campaign victory. donor behavior for better
targeting and maximum
results.

88
2005 Politics Online Conference – The Mantra of Business Technology in
Today’s Campaigns
2. Spreading candidate’s many, this will require developing
message to allow contact to solutions to avoid placing strains on
be more efficient with voters, campaign managers, forcing these
staff, consultants, and managers to seek technology solutions.
leaders. In doing so these campaign professionals
3. Creating greater operational will determine the nature of the
efficiency within the campaigns that await them in 2005,
campaign 2006, 2007 and 2008.
office and The need to centralize
with fundraising, analytics, voter It is my personal belief
committees, information, Web tools, that campaigns will
coalitions become increasingly
media buys and more into
and dependent on some
endorsers. one platform is the challenge form of CRM
of an industry that has just application. The need
The aforementioned begun to define itself to centralize
model is based on professionally. fundraising, analytics,
finding new ways for voter information, Web
technology to empower the campaign. tools, media buys and more into one
The CRM enables the campaign to platform is the challenge of an industry
determine what different voters are that has just begun to define itself
worth, treat different voters professionally. Companies and
appropriately, and improve efficiency. In candidates will grow into the modern
effect, the CRM develops a voter-centric definition of Campaign Relationship
model for running a campaign. This is Management by finding voters that will
not new and uncharted territory for many tell them how much interaction they
campaigns, but the use of technology to want, when they want it, and what are
do so is. they willing to do for it. Successfully
meeting this challenge will allow
CRM requires new ways of thinking for campaigns to unlock the value of CRM
everyone involved with a campaign. It investments and to carry their specific
is not something that can happen in a capabilities to higher levels of voter
vacuum: it will affect the whole turnout. Effective use of the CRM will
campaign. As voters demand more change online democracy forever.
relevant and personalized interactions
with their candidates and candidates
increase their competition for the vote The views in this article are the views of the
contributors only and do not reflect the views of the
share, campaigns will need to do a better Politics Online Conference or the Institute for Politics,
job of using the mounting voter and Democracy & the Internet.
transaction data at their disposal. For

89
The Internet is an
Essential Advocacy Tool
for the Left and the Right Joy Howell

Joy Howell is a
managing partner at
E-advocacy is now seen as the new cost-effective Cambridge Strategic
way to lobby. Both the right and the left are Partners.
building their databases of e-mail responsive, like-
minded activists. Recent experience has shown
that consumer groups trying to shape policy have a
long way to go to be competitive with pro-business
lobbying organizations.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sent 30 action litigation. Why? Long experience
million e-mails during the 2004 election has shown that some elected officials are
cycle, according to The Washington Post more sensitive to small business owners
and The New York Times. Clearly politically as a grassroots force of their
corporations have discovered the power constituents than they are to political
of e-advocacy in determining political messages from corporations
outcomes. For more than the last headquartered thousand of miles away.
decade, the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, The myth that the Internet is Most consumer groups
corporations and their
the domain of the young and have traditionally relied
trade associations have on their membership
used direct mail, progressive is just that—a base to be their
telemarketing and now myth. Americans of all ages grassroots force.
e-mail to reach out and are increasingly claiming Clearly, with the
mobilize small business that the print, radio and TV business community
owners to support the media are biased in one way investing heavily in this
U.S. Chamber’s
or another and they go to the new Internet-recruited
legislative objectives and activated grassroots
even when small Internet for unbiased news force, consumer groups
business owners were sources. must become more
not materially affected. sophisticated. While
The recent class action bill fight saw yet progressive groups have poured millions
another example in which small into MoveOn.org and 527 non-profit
businesses were encouraged to call their groups, a legislative focus that
Members of Congress and urge them to corresponds to the priorities of the
pass a bill championed by big business consumer movement seems to be
advocates, even when small business missing.
owners are rarely the targets of class

90
2005 Politics Online Conference – The Internet is an Essential Advocacy Tool for
the Left and the Right
The myth that the Internet is the domain
of the young and progressive is just
that—a myth. Americans of all ages are
increasingly claiming that the print,
radio and TV media are biased in one
way or another and they go to the
Internet for unbiased news sources,
according to a recent report by Andy
Kohut. By some estimates, 22 percent
of Americans 65 and older use the
Internet. The percent of seniors who go
online has jumped by 47 percent
between 2000 and 2004. In a February
2004 survey, 22 percent of Americans
age 65 or older reported having access to
the Internet, up from 15 percent in 2000.
By contrast, 58 percent of Americans
age 50-64, 75 percent of 30-49 year-
olds, and 77 percent of 18-29 year-olds
currently go online, but older Americans
are gaining as they discover safety and
ease through Internet use. But as the
number of elderly using the Internet
rises, and the number of rural residents
using the net rises, the power on the
Internet is shifting to the Republicans
and the right. Those e-activists are more
likely to act on behalf of business
interests and to make it even more
challenging for progressive consumer,
civil rights, pro-gun control,
environmental and labor groups to
identify, recruit and mobilize like-
minded e-activists to provide the
consumer viewpoint in the e-advocacy
war shaping public policy on Capitol
Hill.

The views in this article are the views of the

contributors only and do not reflect the views of the
Politics Online Conference or the Institute for Politics,
Democracy & the Internet.

91
Network-Centric
Thinking: The Internet’s Rob Stuart and Jed
Miller
Challenge to Egocentric Rob Stuart is the senior
Institutions vice president of
@dvocacy, Inc. He is
the founder of the E-
When advocacy groups embrace digital Volve Foundation. He is
a speaker at the 2005
democracy, the reverberations shake the Politics Online
whole organization. Conference.

Jed Miller is a director

There is a tension between institutional power that at the New York
emanates from an organization and the transactional power nonprofit Web Lab, an
of its members’ myriad interactions. The former leads to advisor to the E-Volve
egocentric thinking; the latter an opportunity for network- Foundation and web
centric thinking. Digital democracy can provide activists editor of The New York
with new power flexibility and independence. MoveOn.org Times Company
and the Howard Dean campaign have pioneered new Foundation’s Institutes
models for democratic, flexible, “network-centric” for Journalists.
approaches, but many organizations stick resolutely to
traditional “egocentric” methods.

People become activists because of their Instead, egocentric environmental

passions, not in response to dictated
messages. Online or in person, the best
way to mobilize the public has always
been to create an effective platform for
shared passions to emerge and develop
into action. Online tools offer a variety
of ways for advocacy groups to reach
beyond traditional activities. Egocentric
organizations, however, resist taking
advantage of these opportunities, while
network-centric ones embrace them.
What are the benefits of network-driven
advocacy, or technology strategy, or
online communities? Bottom line: they
pass information quickly and pool their
resources to make a difference.
advocacy groups often preempt new
initiatives at big press conferences,
giving opponents time to craft responses.
Competition and organizational identity
undermine network-centric organizing
that relies on information-sharing and
distributed power.
A scary story told to a five-year old
illustrates the worst-case scenario.
Imagine a world wracked by
environmental devastation. Water tastes
bad. The air makes people sick. Species
are disappearing. The people on this
planet know something is wrong, but the
big company that is causing the

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destruction won’t admit they are doing
anything bad.
The people, whom everyone else trusts
to work on the problem, spend most of
their time competing with each other
instead of looking for solutions. Some of
them want money. Some want attention.
Some of them aren’t sure what exactly
they want. But they all want one thing
they want to get the credit for saving the
world.
These people don’t realize that each one
of them has a piece of the answer, and if
they work together and tell each other
everything they know, the world will be
saved. When the planet starts to collapse,
they decide to have a race to see who
can get noticed the most before the end
comes. With the world ending and only
one more newspaper, each group wants
to get the very first quote in the very last
newspaper.
The five-year olds response: “That's a
silly story about silly people.”
Unfortunately a host of organizations on
our own planet fall unambiguously into
the Silly People category, including
many national advocacy groups and the
vast majority of charitable foundations.
In this changing world, traditional
models for organizing, fund-raising,
management, marketing and warfare
have become ineffectual.
We need to develop a deeper
understanding of the advantages of both
network-centric and egocentric models
for business, outreach and mobilization.
Warfare has adapted to confront a post-
9/11, post-dot-com world and the tools
of organizing must do the same. Beyond
Howard’s End Like the dot-com boom
that pre-figured it, the Howard Dean
craze made exaggerated claims that were
undeliverable. This movement, fueled by
unsupervised local initiatives and virally
activated small donors, could not reach
far enough beyond its loyal, wired base.
Politics as we know it did not change
overnight, but The Dean campaign’s
most-repeated claim, however, was its
truest. “You did it!” In critical ways it
confirmed a new model for political
power, a model that makes second-
person pronouns as important as the first
person. The Dean campaign empowered
constituents to speak for themselves and
to hear themselves speak, using an
online platform created by the campaign.
The campaign’s use of blogs, e-mail,
online donations and grassroots
comments were a milestone in
presidential politics.
For non-profit technologists and online
community builders, Dean’s initial
success was a glorious affirmation.
Dean, the Dean team and the teeming
Deaniacs showed that if you build a
platform that empowers members to
seek affinity, speak effectively and
influence strategy, they will come—and
they’ll bring their credit cards and their
social networks with them.
After Howard Dean, the onus is on
every political organization to enlist its
base not merely as financial contributors
but as active participants, if not full
campaign partners.
Old Power
Practical lessons garnered from years of
successful grassroots leadership may
make it challenging for traditional
organizations to adapt and take full
advantage of the emerging network-
centric model. However when they
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evolve to more transparent, collaborative attitude mars the civil society sector is
institutions, they will draw strength from awe-inspiring.
a network-centric approach. The
characteristics of the “egocentric model” New Power
will probably sound familiar. Authority
and decision-making are maintained Network-centric organizations allow
within the organization, not shared with decision-making authority to spread to
membership or
affiliates. Power is Organizations that invest in the membership,
generating excitement
concentrated at the top. network-centric thinking among supporters and
attract a large pool of opening a deep well of
As a new generation of untapped supporters. creativity and expertise.
Web-savvy activists Of the two million people Before the Internet,
find their methods to be who joined Moveon.org, substantive member-
detached and involvement in
uninspiring, many most had not previously
organizational decision-
advocacy organizations thought of themselves as making was tough to
may stagnate or falter. activists. achieve. It required
But the converse is also endless facilitation by
true. If these institutions were to invest leadership and countless face-to-face
their activities with more network- meetings. Today the tools exist to make
centric thinking, they would attract a member engagement efficient and
huge pool of untapped supporters into inexpensive.
their campaigns. Of the two million
people who joined MoveOn.org, most Our world is growing increasingly
had not previously thought of cellular. Our connections to institutions
themselves as activists. are more fractured and episodic. Unlike
our bowling-league parents, we do not
When “messaging” and “key count on intermediary organizations, like
differentiators” are primary values for an unions or churches, to facilitate our links
organization, a reluctance to share to political candidates or community
knowledge with peers is a common and causes. In a cellular world, power is
unfortunate consequence. Effective transactional, not institutional. Network-
methods become ways to beat out sibling centric organizations measure their
groups. Access to information becomes a effectiveness not by how much money
strategic advantage. Most groups do not they raise or how much press they get
even publish a calendar of upcoming but by how well they are able to make
press events, out of concern that they fruitful connections between their
will tip their hands to peers with whom constituents. Interactions are more
they compete. So it’s not surprising that important than broadcasts. Campaigns
draft reports are rarely shared before are designed to facilitate outreach. Often
publication, nor are data sets made easily the point of the campaign is to provide
available in order to advance the general members with the opportunity to take
knowledge of a sector—let alone to get direct action—to write their
timely information to the public as soon Congressperson, organize a vigil or
as possible. The extent to which this contribute knowledge to a shared

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resource—and to encourage their friends
to do so, as well. Like a meme, the
campaign spreads. One campaign
succeeds the next, and each new effort
offers members the chance to participate
in shaping the group’s strategy.
A major objective for network-centric
organizations is information sharing
among participants. The better-informed
the membership is, the more effective its
decision-making will be as new
campaigns take shape. New Power
invests in relationship building,
knowledge management and online
community technologies that make it
simple for individuals to sign up,
contribute and connect to valuable
information. Network-centric
organizations devote significant
resources to expanding the capacity of
the group’s membership to perform.
Network-conscious groups also devote
substantial resources to supporting their
peers, not only by sharing information
and providing referrals but also by
participating in collaborative activities,
such as conferences or joint campaigns.
Network-centric organizations are more
fluid; they can respond quickly to
changes in circumstances. By using
online tools like polling or threaded
discussions, they can get rapid feedback
from membership on what position or
activities are appropriate in a given
situation. As a member, you feel more
valued when someone asks your opinion.
You get a sense of ownership. So you
become more committed to the
organization and more likely to take part
in it campaigns. You are also more likely
to support the group financially, since
you have already given it something
even more valuable than money: your
ideas and opinions. Because of the
dynamic nature of the network-centric
model, active participation by members
can ebb and flow. A member may be
deeply involved in one campaign and
then sit out the next two. That’s fine; in
fact it’s healthy and a reflection of the
busy realities of our cellular society.
Just because network-centric thinking
trusts membership to make decisions
does not mean that strong leadership is
not important to a group’s success.
Without an inspiring leadership vision
and capable administration, advocacy
groups flounder. But for leadership in
the network-centric model, the emphasis
is on facilitation, on creating conditions
for group participation, rather than on
providing comprehensive agendas and
issuing detailed action plans. But leaders
in a network-centric effort treat their
network of members and supporters as
peers. They defer to the power of the
grassroots organizers, and they do not
seek to call attention to themselves.
Key Characteristics
Listed below are the essential
characteristics of egocentric and
network-centric organizations:
Egocentric Characteristics
• Focuses on building organizational
moral and internal team cohesion
• Key staff evaluated on internal
organizational goals
• Value placed on raising organizational
profile, development and centralizing
organizational resources
• Leadership focus on goals and
managing staff to achieve specific goals
• Resistant to information sharing
• Hierarchal decision-making structure
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• Members contribute dollars but not requires a loss of control over
ideas organizational goals and resources. The
• Group defines programs as unique or approach appears to violate leaders’
original years of training about accountability,
message discipline and the measurement
Network-Centric Characteristics of outcomes. It carries the threat of
chaos. By sharing knowledge, for
• Focuses on expanding number of example, a group risks losing its position
people/organizations reached as the most valued information source on
• Focuses on expanding capacity of a particular issue.
network to perform
• More attention paid to information Community as Thinking
sharing Machine
• Values social contact between staffs of
partner organizations Emergence theory experts like John
• Facilitates rise of multiple leaders by Holland and Steven Johnson teach us
enabling coordinated action that connectedness yields accelerated
• Distributed power structure learning within a network and more
• Leverages and shares resources with efficient refinement of ideas and
partners practices.
• Leadership provides vision and energy
to network The building blocks of networked
learning are the single transactions
What’s Next? between individuals or organizations.
The higher the number of interactions in
Networks are increasingly prominent in a network, the more quickly innovations
all aspects of our lives, from the shape of appear to meet challenges, iterate and
the global economy to the way teen- become refined.
agers play online video games.
Remarkably, civil society—the not-for- Organizations that embrace emergence
profit, public interest sector—seems to will adopt a network-centric model so
only now become aware that information is
of this change. Civil The network-centric model shared promiscuously,
society groups talk asks each of us to trust that while encouraging its
about increasing members and partners
participation in
the network knows more
to do the same. In
democracy. They claim than we do. contrast, egocentric
to promote individual organizations trap
initiative in collective action. They are institutional knowledge inside silos,
committed to knowledge sharing, to the withholding that knowledge from the
free flow of information. They promote greater community, until the
the ideals of community and diversity in organization is tactically positioned to
society benefit from releasing it.

However, other obstacles remain. There The network-centric model asks each of
is a fear that the network-centric model us to trust that the network knows more

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than we do. It is understood that if we
feed the network with knowledge, it will
repay us with evolution. To take
advantage of this approach, network-
centric organizations will push
information to the edges of the network
as quickly as possible, to increase the
number of interactions. Smarter
organizations will have a higher
“interaction quotient.” The entire,
interactive social network becomes a
dynamic, creative thinking machine.
The people of Planet Earth may or may
not be as silly as the people in our fable.
The magnetism that draws us naturally
into networks is as fundamental to
human nature as the narcissism beneath
our egocentric habits. At this time, our
planet is in grave peril, and we won’t
solve the big problems through go-it-
alone, competitive group activities. We
must find ways to work together in
network-centered organizations or the
planet will suffer the consequences. Our
own Disney ending is not yet
guaranteed.
The views in this article are the views of the
contributors only and do not reflect the views of the
Politics Online Conference or the Institute for Politics,
Democracy & the Internet.
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