*** Democracies Online Newswire - http://www.e-democracy.org/do ***


The Industry Standard, ZDNet, and Roll Call have all posted important
politics online stories about the role of the Internet in the 2000
election and the politics .com world.  I also "appeared" on the
Quorum site to answer a number of questions.

I'll summarize my opinion with a question - how do take barely
sustainable non-profit models and turn them into profitable
enterprises?  There may be ways to redirect existing money flows in
"as is" politics (i.e. interest group lobbying, political
fundraising, political skullduggery) to support new firms, but the
vast majority of civic stuff I care so passionately about will
require volunteer, foundation, government and individual member/donor
support to exist or it will come by influencing the activity of large
portal and news sites owned by traditional media and representative
democracy.  My analysis on the .com viability situation from last
February might be useful: http://www.egroups.com/message/do-wire/457

Meanwhile on the E-Democracy ranch we just launched another volunteer-
based interactive project - the Minnesota Young Voters Forum.
MN-YVOTE <http://www.e-democracy.org/mn-yvote> is special online
discussion for people 18-30 to discuss the Presidential and MN U.S.
Senate race.  We are planting the seeds of "e-citizenship" one person
at a time.  There is no Internet shortcut to instant political
engagement - just an Internet-enabled opportunity to turn the sparks
of political interest into an eternal flame of civic passion.

Steven Clift
Democracies Online

My Q & A with Quorum readers:
http://www.quorum.org/servlet/ArticleServlet?action=view&article=11497

Industry Standard's Netelection special report:
http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,19397,00.html

October 16, 2000

Net Election 2000

In politics, the Net hasn't changed everything – yet. But the Web's
influence on government, policy and politicians is unmistakable. From
the money that drives elections to the way campaigns are waged to the
issues dominating the agenda, one thing is clear this November: The
Internet Economy has come of voting age.

The Search for E-mocracy By Jacob Weisberg In 2000, the Internet was
supposed to change politics the way TV did in 1960. Turns out this
year is more like 1952.

What's at Stake By Keith Perine, Aaron Pressman and Elizabeth
Wasserman Some of the biggest issues facing candidates and policy
makers in election 2000 tie in to the new economy.

Tech Companies Pay to Play By Laura Carr 'Computer equipment &
services' companies are giving to political candidates in record
amounts, but the tech sector still lags behind other industries in
total donations.

The Early Adopter By Keith Perine Al Gore wears a Palm, surfs the Web
and raised millions of dollars in Silicon Valley. He wants to be the
first high-tech president.

Taking Care of Business By Elizabeth Wasserman George W. Bush never
claimed to be a techno-whiz – just the guy who knows how to keep the
new economy humming.

The Wired Candidate By Ted Rose Jean Elliott Brown may be running one
of the most technologically sophisticated congressional campaigns in
the country. But will that win her any votes?

After the Fall By Patrick A. McGuire When the dust from the election
clears, will the party be over for

political-content sites?

Kings of the Hill By Aaron Pressman From its early days, America
Online has been a Case study in Beltway savvy. So why is the merger
with Time Warner such a tough sell in Washington?

Hail to the Chief Tech-Heads By Michael Beschloss Lincoln held his
own patent. Kennedy aimed for the moon. What should the next
president do? Maybe nothing.

The Net Electorate Logs Off By Laura Carr Media Metrix predicts that
nearly 9 in 10 surfers plan to vote this year. The Standard takes a
look at where they are or aren't getting political information.

The Valley Way By Scott Harris Startup executives want to reinvent
political influence. PAC.com's approach: Dole out stock to
candidates.


And two more stories on the politics online .com world ...

From:
http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,2640368,00.html

End Is Near For Political Sites
By Rebecca Fairley Raney , Inter@ctive Week
Special To Inter@ctive Week
October 15, 2000 7:03 PM ET

Joshua King has made a career of rolling the dice: He
has worked in the White House, toiled for three
presidential campaigns and served as vice president for
external affairs at SpeakOut.com, one of several
political portals that emerged last year. He knows the
day may be coming when he must bid his online
column good-bye.

"I fully anticipate writing that farewell piece in
November," he says. "I never thought I was going to be
the next Carl Rowan."

The column, like much of the news and information
produced on SpeakOut and other political portals, may
go by the wayside as the companies abandon the
notion that they can make money by attracting large
audiences to political information.

Even if the sites do attract large audiences, the
phenomenon is likely to be short-lived; the managers of
nonprofit political Web sites learned years ago that the
audience for politics on the Internet appears on the day
before, the day of and the day after the election.

"It's not a business," says Allen Weiner, vice president
of analytical services at NetRatings, a Web audience
measurement firm. "Business is based on sustainable
traffic."

Rather than promote the Web site, SpeakOut is
pushing a new product: online polling. Other venture
capital-backed politics companies, such as
Grassroots.com and Voter.com, also plan to shift their
emphasis to the tenuous market of Internet
campaigning.



>From (Thank you Stephanie Vance):
http://www.rollcall.com/pages/news/00/10/news1016c.html

October 16, 2000

Making Web Politics Pay


Firms Find Internet Election Sites Are No Easy Sell

By Amy Keller

In their mad dash to tap the political potential of the Internet,
dozens of cyber entrepreneurs are discovering that competing on the
Web resembles a cutthroat game of "Survivor" - minus the rats and
nudity.

"The road to success on the Internet is littered with the wrecks of
the field," said Ron Gunzberger, who runs Politics1.com.

"I'm one of those few survivors who's been around for more than one
election cycle," explained Gunzberger.

He admits outright that his site is hardly a big profit maker, but
says the heavy traffic it receives makes it "a nice marketing
platform for the other things" his company does.

And, he says, he's learned some valuable lessons about the business
from the venture.

"Any time anyone out there tells you 'we're going to corner the (fill
in the blank) field' ... I try not to laugh directly in their face,
because anyone who says that is showing an inability to understand
the Internet and how it works," Gunzberger said. "Those people with
the 'Field of Dreams' business plan - 'if you build it, they will
come' - have no idea what they're doing."

Judging by the growing list of e-casualties, the field of dreams has
turned into a nightmarish morass for many politically oriented Web
startups.

- end clip -

^               ^               ^                ^
Steven L. Clift    -    W: http://www.publicus.net
Minneapolis    -   -   -     E: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Minnesota  -   -   -   -   -    T: +1.612.822.8667
USA    -   -   -   -   -   -   -     ICQ: 13789183


*** Please send submissions to:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]     ***
*** To subscribe, e-mail:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]          ***
***         Message body:  SUB DO-WIRE                  ***
*** To unsubscribe instead, write: UNSUB DO-WIRE        ***

*** Please forward this post to others and encourage    ***
*** them to subscribe to the free DO-WIRE service.      ***

Reply via email to