*** Democracies Online Newswire - http://www.e-democracy.org/do *** ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date sent: Thu, 10 Aug 2000 14:37:09 -0400 Subject: PoliSites newsletter From: "Bruce Maxwell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] PoliSites August 8, 2000 Vol. 1, No. 16 ISSN 1530-3594 ________________________________________________________________ Bruce Maxwell, Editor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Silver Hammer Publishing <http://silverhammerpub.com> Instructions for subscribing and unsubscribing are provided at the end of this newsletter. Will You Do Me a Favor? ________________________________________________________________ If you find this newsletter useful, will you please forward it to friends, relatives, or colleagues who might like it? This is the best way for me to gain subscribers so I can continue publishing this free resource. Thanks very much for your support. The News ________________________________________________________________ HOW DEMOS WILL UPSTAGE GOP The Democrats aren't conceding anything to the Republicans when it comes to technology use at the party's national convention. Democratic delegates will cast their votes electronically for a presidential candidate, delegates will be able to access a wide range of convention information with their Palm Pilots, and Voter.com will provide kiosks where delegates will be able to read everything from platform information to convention calendars. Source: Wired News - Aug. 8, 2000 http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,38051,00.html REPUBLICAN CONVENTION ROUNDUP The Republican National Convention was really the first major test for the Internet-based news media. The Los Angeles Times found that despite lots of technical glitches, many Web sites offered valuable, instant information. Slate's take on Internet news organizations covering the convention was that print - yes, print - was the big winner. ZDNN looked at how George Bush's official Web site covered the convention. The Industry Standard examined how the Independent Media Center used the Web to report about the protests and arrests in Philadelphia. And a wrap-up piece in the Weekly Standard found that instead of improving the political process, the Internet may trivialize it even further. Sources: Los Angeles Times - Aug. 4, 2000 http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/20000804/t000073078.html Slate - Aug. 4, 2000 http://slate.msn.com/netelection/entries/00-08-04_87658.asp ZDNN - Aug. 2, 2000 http://www.zdnet.com/filters/printerfriendly/ 0,6061,2611222-2,00.html Industry Standard - Aug. 2, 2000 http://www.thestandard.com/article/article_print/ 1,1153,17356,00.html Weekly Standard - Aug. 7, 2000 http://www.weeklystandard.com/magazine/mag_5_44_00/ ferguson_feat_5_44_00.asp GOING ONLINE IS FINE, BUT GOP SEES E-MAIL AS THE KEY Web sites may be great, but both major parties are focusing much of their Internet efforts on collecting e-mail addresses of supporters. The GOP has 250,000 addresses and the Democrats have 150,000 - all of whom can be contacted for money, labor, and votes. Source: USA Today - Aug. 3, 2000 http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000803/2516147s.htm P&G DROPS TEEN SEX QUIZ FOLLOWING INQUIRIES ON CHENEY TIES TO COMPANY Until last week, a sex quiz for "younger teens" at the BeingGirl Web site asked intimate questions and phrased questions to assume that the girls were sexually active. Procter & Gamble sponsors the site to market its feminine hygiene products. Reporters started asking questions about the quiz because Republican vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney is a member of P&G's board of directors - and its public policy committee. The quiz was quietly removed from the site during the Republican National Convention. Source: CNSNews.com - Aug. 2, 2000 http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=\Culture\archive\ CUL20000802a.html THE IMPACT OF THE INTERNET ON THE POLITICS OF CUBA This article primarily focuses on how the Cuban government and opposition groups based outside Cuba use the Internet to disseminate their views. The article also offers URLs for various government and opposition sites. Source: First Monday - August 2000 http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue5_8/williamson CHINA CLOSES DISSIDENT WEB SITE The first dissident Web site actually located in China has been ordered shut down by the Ministry of State Security, and police are trying to identify who ran the site. It was hosted by a company that provides Web sites to private individuals. Police have ordered the company to monitor its clients more closely in the future. Source: Associated Press - Aug. 8, 2000 http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000808/tc/ china_online_dissent_2.html FINDING SERIOUS POLITICAL DISCOURSE AMONG ALL THE ONLINE ILLITERACY The Internet is supposed to be a great force for democracy, allowing citizens to debate issues of public concern. In reality, though, it's largely a platform for illiterate ranting. Source: San Francisco Chronicle - Aug. 2, 2000 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/ archive/2000/08/02/MN74451.DTL CYBERSPACE FREES IRAN'S REBEL CLERIC Iran's leading dissident is under house arrest, guarded around the clock and allowed to see no one but his relatives. Yet Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri manages to distribute his political and religious views through his own Web site, which the government so far has not shut down. Source: The Guardian (England) - Aug. 5, 2000 http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/international/story/ 0,3604,350628,00.html SITE HELPS POLITICIANS AND NONPROFITS COLLECT Candidates need to be able to collect donations on their Web sites, but building the necessary back-end system is beyond many webmasters. A company called EContributor promises to do all the dirty work - in two hours or less - for either a transaction fee or a cut of the money raised. Source: Internet VC Watch - Aug. 4, 2000 http://www.internetvcwatch.com/vcwatch/article/ 0,2112,2601_430061,00.html DUKE'S ON THE INTERNET STUMP CAMPAIGNING TO BEAT THE BLAND Bored with the stick figures who are getting nominated for president? Then check out the candidacy of Duke, the creation of Doonesbury cartoonist Gary Trudeau. Duke's Web site (http://www.duke2000.com) has many pithy statements by the candidate, like this one about censorship: "You have to remember that one person's porn site is another person's social life." Source: Boston Globe - Aug. 4, 2000 http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/217/living/Duke_s_on_the_ Internet_stump_campaigning_to_beat_the_bland+.shtml SYRIA UNDER BASHAR BEGINS INTERNET EXPANSION Until his death earlier this year, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad strictly controlled the public's access to information. His son, who succeeded his father in July, plans to change that policy by opening Internet access to everyone. The government will block access to sites it deems unethical or immoral, although officials admitted they will not be able to fully control access to the sites. Source: Reuters - Aug. 3, 2000 http://news.excite.com/news/r/000803/07/net-syria-dc 'HI, MR. DOE, GOVERNOR BUSH CALLING...' ABC recently backed down from a plan to blitz the country with recorded telephone calls plugging the network's shows, but that hasn't slowed down the two major presidential campaigns from using the same technology. The campaigns claim that voters are thrilled to get the recorded calls - a claim that your editor finds mighty hard to believe. Source: New York Times Magazine - Aug. 6, 2000 http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/ 20000806mag-phenomenon.html TAIWAN PLAYS CYBER WAR GAMES When Taiwan launches its military exercises later this month, the cyber warriors will do battle, too. Two teams will use almost 2,000 computer viruses in attempts to infiltrate and shut down their opponent's network. Source: British Broadcasting Corp. - Aug. 7, 2000 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/ newsid_870000/870386.stm The Sites ________________________________________________________________ Because the News section ran so long this week, the Sites section is taking a temporary hiatus. ________________________________________________________________ Copyright 2000 Silver Hammer Publishing. All rights reserved worldwide. Please feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone who might be interested, as long as you forward the entire publication. However, it is expressly forbidden to post this newsletter on any Web site or other electronic retrieval system. To subscribe to PoliSites, send a blank e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit the Web site. PoliSites Web page <http://silverhammerpub.com/politics.html> Advertising information <http://silverhammerpub.com/ad.html> If you like this newsletter, you might like my others as well: HealthESites, Health Newsbrief, Women's Health Newsbrief, and Men's Health Newsbrief. Subscription info at http://silverhammerpub.com Bruce Maxwell Silver Hammer Publishing 6937 Custis Parkway Falls Church, VA 22042 703-532-6327 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ^ ^ ^ ^ 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. ***
