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------- Forwarded message follows ------- From: "Scott Proudfoot" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Proudfoot At Hillwatch" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: New Study - Political Web Sites: Strategic Assets or Virtual Lawn Signs? Date sent: Tue, 22 Jun 2004 09:18:44 -0400 Hillwatch E-Services has just released a major benchmarking study comparing the Canadian political party election sites (Liberal, Conservative, NDP, Bloc, Green) to the John Kerry and George Bush election sites. With the Canadian election in full flight, now is the ideal time to benchmark how, and how well, Canadian political parties are making use the online medium. This report presents the results of a Hillwatch e-Impact Benchmark performed between June 2 and 12th on the web sites of five Canadian political parties engaged in the federal election (the Liberal, Conservative, NDP, Bloc Quebecois, and Green Parties). In addition, it benchmarks the web sites of the John Kerry and George Bush in the United States for comparative purposes. This analysis is based on the use of Hillwatch's proprietary web site benchmarking methodology, which checks for the presence or absence of online best practice indicators. This approach yields rigorous comparative analysis based on objective and quantifiable criteria. Research Summary: There are clear and substantive differences in the strategic uses and tactical implementations of the political web sites studied. Key differences include: - US political websites are core strategic assets of the campaign. - Canadian sites reflect a top down command-and-control campaign model. - Canadian sites do not enable party grassroots to ”self serve”. - Canadian sites have yet to crack the online fundraising nut. - US sites are content rich, hosting more than twice the content of their Canadian counterparts. In a closely contested Canadian federal election, Canada's political parties have been overlooking an opportunity to make themselves far more competitive. This report delivers insight on the current status of online Canadian Campaigning but also on the growing sophistication of the US political web space. To obtain the full report: http://www.hillwatch.com/Publications/Research/Virtuallawnsigns.aspx Scott Proudfoot Hillwatch Inc. #200, 334 MacLaren Street Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K2P 0M6 Ph: 613 238 8700 Fax: 613 234 9823 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.hillwatch.com ------- End of forwarded message ------- ^ ^ ^ ^ Steven L. Clift - - - W: http://publicus.net Minneapolis - - - - E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minnesota - - - - - - T: +1.612.822.8667 USA - - - - - MSN/Y!/AIM: netclift Join my Democracies Online Newswire: http://dowire.org EDem's Election 2004 Links: http://e-democracy.org/us *** Past Messages, to Subscribe: http://dowire.org *** *** To subscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** Message body: SUB DO-WIRE *** *** To UNSUBSCRIBE instead, write: UNSUB DO-WIRE *** *** Please send submissions to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** New RSS XML Feed Available: *** http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/maillist.xml
