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<td width="633" valign="top" height="545" bgcolor="#FFFF99">Posted by timothy on 00-06-06 9:02
from the laws-sausages-and-bitchslapping dept.
Last week you asked online activist Scott Reents about his organization The Democracy Project, about online
political action, about the worth of political involvement in general. He's obliged with some lengthy, thoughtful
answers. If nothing else, his words should give you pause when you vote -- or don't. <p>
Query
by Modern_Celt <p>
Considering the speed of internet communication is this going to make it even more difficult for those in the Western states
to care about the election? After all, most of the networks already predict a winner LONG before the poles out west close.<p>
Scott Reents: Internet or no Internet, your individual vote is mathematically meaningless in determining the outcome of an
election anyway, and exit polls already exist to remind you of this fact.<p>
Still, the speed of the Internet is an important factor in our overall participation in politics. For example, MoveOn was able
to organize and channel millions of people opposed to Clinton's impeachment in a matter of weeks. Normally, organizations
can't mobilize their membership around pending legislation or regulations, because the window of opportunity before they
are enacted is too small. This makes a truly grassroots organization an impossibility without the Internet, because there
must always be organizational management to serve as proxies to (hopefully) represent their members interests. <p>
How does the medium change the message?
by Squirrel Killer <p>
I think most of us have a pretty good understanding of the ways in which the Internet affects the method of political
communications. Instead of phone banking and lit drops, you can use e-mail lists and Web sites, to cite just two examples. <p>
However, the more interesting question, in my mind, is how the Internet, as a medium, affects the message. How do you
view political content changing as a response to the new methods available? Will political content move more to the
extremes, since politicians can target more effectively, or will it move more mainstream, since more people are brought
into the political arena. <p>
Beyond the message, how will the internet affect political outcomes? Are there any potential policy options that become
possible with the new methods available? <p>
Scott: Will the Internet affect the "message" of political communication? Absolutely.<p>
The medium is the message, which is to say that the characteristics of the Internet imply that certain messages work and
certain messages do not work. The fact that there is so much choice on the Internet means that messages that are pure
rhetoric and are not informative do not work; users can and will click elsewhere. The fact that hyperlinking is so common
means that messages that don't link to supporting material are assumed to be hiding something. The fact that online
publishing is so inexpensive means that users won't accept superficial explanations of positions and values.<p>
Politicians CAN continue to make Web sites that are nothing more than glorified brochures, but who will visit them? Right
now, I think that people visit them for the novelty, and because they don't really know what to expect, but that will not last
if they continue to treat their users like fools.<p>
Now, you raise an interesting point about the impact of politicians being able to "target" more effectively. To talk to most
Internet marketers/campaigners these days, you'd think that "targeted" communication was the essence of the Internet, and
was the highest form of interactivite communication. Wrong. Targeted communication is not of the Internet. It is of direct
mail. It's a method used to improve response rates (like, from 3% to 4%, a 33% improvement!), to save money on
postage, to hit the right hot buttons, blah, blah, blah. And it's not interactive; the communication is essentially as one way
as broadcast television -- just more accurate.<p>
Which is to say that I agree with your suggestion that targeting results in more extreme messages and a more stratified
electorate, and I think that's dangerous. <p>
It's also the way that the Internet politics space will move if left to develop by itself. In the last 12 months, sites like
Grassroots.com ("Your political action network"), Voter.com ("Delivering democracy to your desktop"), Speakout.com
("Speak Out. Be Heard."), Vote.com ("Your vote will always be sent where it counts"), have all started with the premise of
being able to aggregate site users and then sell targeted access (via e-mail, banner ads, etc.) to political campaigns, a
prospect that I think is unhealthy for democracy. <p>
That's why I wrote the essay -- to describe the way that political campaigns SHOULD be using the Internet for
communication, and to try to set a higher standard for what people expect online. I don't think that an Internet of primarily
targeted political messages is an inevitability, but it certainly is a possibility.<p>
Will candidates ever really do this?
by El Volio <p>
Interesting article. As a fairly neutral U.S. citizen, it occurs to me that, to many, the ideas expressed here are applied
versions of general democratic ideals. Most voters would like to see more information about what candidates actually are
proposing, and many want objective comparisons from unbiased sources. <p>
But that's not politics. Never has been, and probably never will be. <p>
So here's the question: Do you think that candidate sites are ever actually likely to provide objective data? Or do you
think there will ever be a truly unbiased, trusted source (perhaps like the way the media should be) where specific
information about tax cut proposals and so forth will be located?<p>
Scott: You've exposed the dirty little secret of my essay, which is that I expect that 90% (at least) of politicians currently
running would ignore my advice, should they read and understand it. So you're right in once sense; there are very few
candidate sites today that remotely do what I prescribe, and most political advisers would consider such steps suicide
because they violate the most important rule in their book: don't give up control. <p>
But I don't think that means that it won't happen, any more than the fact that Microsoft hasn't supported open software
means that open software isn't happening. My argument is simply that the traditional mode of campaigning doesn't work
very well on the Internet, and so those that continue in the traditional mode will have to do so somewhere other than the
Internet. And as important as this medium is becoming, that is a more and more unsustainable strategy.<p>
And there are examples of candidates who are doing the right things. Ventura took some baby steps in the right direction
with his e-mail lists. This Congressional candidate in Idaho is doing a very good job of running a citizen-centric campaign
on the Internet, and so far succeeding. I'm sure there are others, though they are still few and far between. You will see
more and more of them, and if you don't, you should consider starting your own. There are also 6,700 unofficial candidate
sites put up by individuals that could potentially do things that the candidate would never allow his official site to do.<p>
Let me also clarify one point, which is that I'm not suggesting that candidates build sites that are purely unbiased
presentations of information. No, there is clearly still a role for opinion and leadership and values, but the best sites will
present these in the context of information that people are looking for. <p>
Candidates would be smart to try to emerge as reliable framers of issues -- the ones that attempt to set the scope of the
problem, identify relevant evidence, outline competing values, etc. This is one of the most powerful positions to be in, but
you can only do this if respect opposing viewpoints and treat them fairly. Frames are never the Congressional and state
level, that people will be able to demonstrably say that the Internet had a measurable impact on the outcome of elections. <p>
More importantly, the 2000 elections are key because they will begin to set the standard for political communication on the
Internet. Millions of dollars is being invested in building online political resources -- campaign-oriented, commercial,
nonprofit, government, etc. -- and the way that that is invested will have a tremendous impact over the way the political
Internet develops over the next 20 years. <p>
Will it be a commercial Yahoo model of aggregating lots of users and then auctioning off access to them to the highest
bidders? Will it be a broadcast model, trying to attract as many eyeballs without giving up any real control? Or will it be a
civic model, empowering citizens to take a more meaningful role in the running of the government? <p>
If it is the latter, I believe that it could have far-reaching impacts on many facets of politics, from the two-party system to
the role of soft money and PACs to the types of legislation that gets enacted.<p>
detailed content
by geekpress <p>
One reason, in my opinion, that politicians don't provide detailed content on their Web sites about policy proposals is the
concern that what they say will come back to bite them, a la "No New Taxes." Concrete policy proposals can be used
against them once in office, for it is easier to measure someone's actions against written statements than soundbytes and
speeches. <p>
So, given this strong incentive to keep proposals vague, what other incentives can we offer politicians to pony up the
details of their plans for us?<p>
Scott: You're absolutely right, that politicians are wary of detailed proposals coming back to bite them, although I'd say
"no new taxes," was missing some of the elements of a detailed proposal (like, detail). <p>
Getting politicians to offer more detail requires that citizens have a way of demanding more. Imagine if there were a forum
open to all candidates who agreed to abide by the rules of the forum -- citizens ask the questions, are allowed follow-up
questions, and candidates can answer or not, but the entire forum is aware of what you answer and don't. Well, no
candidates would come, because candidates insist on control over the information they have to give up. What if, however,
the forum contained 10%, 20%, or even 50% of the likely voters. I bet you'd see a lot more interest. There would be the
credible threat that at least one candidate (particularly the one who was trailing in the polls) would show up, and then all
candidates would be forced to show up. I propose that that forum can be built on the Internet, and I bet some of you are
smart enough to come up with a way to figure out which questions to ask.<p>
Politicians are opportunistic; they will do what they need to do to win. So, the answer to getting them to pony up more
information is to make it a necessary component of winning. <p>
The truth is, there is a subtle collusion between politicians and traditional media. Traditional media want to make money
from politicians showing up on their talk shows, buying ads, granting interviews, participating in debates, and they don't
care deeply about making these things particularly meaningful. Thus, politicians hold the upper hand -- as long as they can
deliver entertainment (ala sound bytes, debate one-liners, etc.) -- they do not have to give up any real control. Politicians
give media what they want; media gives politicians what they want.<p>
Is Internet driving a societal shift?
by Noel <p>
In your essay you say, "the expectations of people on the Internet are different and more demanding than citizens'
expectations in general." <p>
Are these higher expectations a result of being on the Internet, or does Internet access self-select people that have higher
expectations? <p>
Will the influx of people onto the Internet raise the expectations of the general populace, or will it dilute the expectations
of the Internet community?<p>
Scott: It's a little bit of both. However, I believe that higher expectations is more a result of the medium than of the
particular people who have chosen to use the medium. I'm not saying that the Internet improves people -- makes them
more critical, more involved, more interested in learning, better judges of argument -- but I am saying that on the Internet a
message transplanted from "traditional media" doesn't look right to most Internet users. <p>
In my research into Internet behavior, I've found that there is about am 18-month period of acclimitazation online, after
which people are much more likely to do more "sophisticated" activities (e.g., personalizing information, registering,
purchasing, changing default start-up pages, etc.), and this observation holds true as much for the people who first went
online in 1996 as it does for the people who just went online last year.<p>
This suggests to me that people's expectations and use of the medium is not set when they come online, but rather evolves
over time. I believe that this increased sophistication comes with an increasing degree of impatience: people understand
what types of sites work and what type don't, and they leave sites that don't.<p>
Why are libertarians better represented on the net?
by Russ Nelson <p>
So why do Internet political polls always generate results which are more skewed towards the libertarian philosophy? Is it
because they don't "count" and so people feel more free to vote how they feel? Or is it because people who are drawn to
the net value freedom more than security?<p>
Scott: Most Internet polls do a very poor job of being scientific, so I would be very wary of concluding that Harry
Browne's apparent popularity among Internet users is real. The most important factor, in my opinion, is that
non-mainstream parties like the Libertarians do better in Internet polls because these marginilized groups feel a greater
desire to participate in these polls, as a way of generating awareness for their movements.<p>
Still, there is certainly a more libertarian ethic on the Internet, and in the same way that I think that people become more
sophisticated with time, I think that people begin to value the freedom of the Internet with time. In my experience, the
strongest advocates of regulating speech on the Internet are those who have the least amount of experience with it.
However, if you look at party affiliations, voting behavior, etc. of Internet users, it's what you'd expect from a group of
people with above average education and income (Pew Research has done some nice, though a bit dated research on the
subject).<p>
Realistically, does the net matter?
by neowintermute <p>
Can we realistically say that the Internet is making a difference in the political process? Can a basically unknown
candidate like Ralph Nader get a resonable number of votes thanks to just his web site? Or are people really just going to
the Web sites of the candidates they hear about on television? In the closed capitalist mind space we inhabit, big monetary
interests determine the range of possibilities people think are viable. <p>
According to a recent IBM/Altavista study, even on the net the big money sites like Yahoo "basically control the flow of
information". So can we really think that the net is going to suddenly bring us democracy despite the nondemocratic nature
of our entire economy/political system?<p>
Scott: I wouldn't go so far as to say that our economic-political system is nondemocratic. I'd be the first to say that there
are aspects that don't work as well as we'd like, but these are easily outweighed by the institutions and processes that are
democratic.<p>
Still, the degree to which information is controlled by corporate interests is disturbing. Ralph Nader is unlikely to get many
votes just because of his Web site, and he's someone with actually quite a bit of promotional muscle behind him. One of
the main reasons is that the traditional method of finding information on the Net, the search engine, tends to reinforce the
hierarchies of offline power structures<p>
To me, this says that the Net will not matter if left to develop in its "natural" commercial fashion. Because this is an
election year, there is a unique opportunity for efforts that define the political Internet outside of this commercial
environment. Millions are for the first time looking for political information and interaction, which means that it's not nearly
as difficult (ie, expensive) as it has been/will be to get a site that captures a fair amount of this traffic. And if done
correctly, ie, in a citizen-centric fashion, such a site should be able to use this jump-start to create a community that
endures and matters. Anyway, that's the bet I've taken in leaving my .com job (and stock options) to start the Democracy
Project.<p>
I'm sure most of you are cognizant of the power -- commercial, political, spiritual, whatever -- that slashdot has. In
pitching the Democracy Project to foundations and other "civicly-minded" folks, I almost always point to slashdot as an
example of the potential power of the Internet. <p>
Slashdot gives the average person the ability to address a forum of hundreds of thousands of people. I contend that that is
unique in the history of the world, and that development is revolutionary in the way that Gutenberg's printing press was
revolutionary. <p>
What about a Slashdot for politics? Is there a space for something like this? Absolutely. In fact there is probably room for
many Slashdots for politics. In its own way, Slashdot is arguably already a Slashdot for politics, with the discussions about
Columbine, digital copyright, CDA, etc. Now, I know that the idea of Slashdot as a political forum is a controversial one,
so I'm not saying that Slashdot should be more political. I'm just saying that the model has already shown that the Internet
has the potential to effect meaningful change on the way our political system works.<p>
noted
by jbarnett<p>
It has been noted that Al Gore is popular among geeks for many reaons, for example he invented the Internet, runs Linux
on his Web site and hides cool little things in his HTML source. What do you think other Presidential candidates have to
do or are doing to "compete" with Al Gore for the Geek vote? <p>
Bill Clinton raised a lot of votes by "reaching out" to the Youth of America, do you think Al Gore will continue to "reach
out" to the Geeks of America in the same aspect as Clinton did a few years back? <p>
In your personal opinon who is the more 31337 hAx0r: Gore or Bush? And Finally the question everyone is dying to know
the answer to: If pited against each other in a roman style caged deathmatch, who would win, Gore or Bush?<p>
Scott: I certainly hope that geeks will base their voting decisions on more than what operating system a candidate's Web
site is running. In all likelihood, Al Gore had nothing to do with that decision, and the fact that his Webmaster hides cool
things in his HTML will not have any impact on what Gore might or might not do as president. These things are almost
entirely symbolic, which isn't surprising since the majority of discourse among the presidential candidates is symbolic
rather than substantive. <p>
Of course, Al Gore will "reach out" to the youth of America, but the question is, will he do it in a way that matters or will it
be mostly about posting pictures of Al in front of a computer on his Web site? Bush, too. I see them in a dead heat for last
in truly reaching out to the YOA.<p>
Now, as for the roman-style caged deathmatch, do you mean Catharginian or Syracusean rules?<p>
'Ender's Game'
by ZetaPotential <p>
A system very similar to what you advocate has been described in some detail in Orson Scott Card's book Ender's Game. In
that book, Card describes online bulletin boards where people "share information, organize and build consensus around
issues," to quote your essay. A central part of this book is that two genius pre-teens write intelligent posts and counterposts
in a way that manipulates public opinion on crucial political issues, for their own advancement. <p>
So, my question is this: If someday the majority of people formulate their political opinions based on what they read in
forums similar to Slashdot, will it be possible for individuals or organizations to manipulate the "public discourse" in such
a way that advances their own agendas? If so, what type of steps would you advocate to reduce this type of "political
trolling"? <p>
Scott: A friend showed me Ender's Game, and I agree that what I'm advocating has a lot in common with that vision of
political discourse. Clearly, there are some very difficult questions about how you preserve the sanctity of an online
"townhall," and I'd be lying if I said I knew all the answers, but I do have some thoughts. <p>
One thing they didn't do in Ender's Game was to verify that each participant on the boards was unique. There should have
been a way to verify that people were unique individuals in such a way that still allowed them their right to anonymity. This
would have kept Peter and Valentine from using fake identities to serve as foils and practice posters. This kind of
anonymous authentication would be an important feature of an online townhall. <p>
Ultimately, however, the real threat they posed is was a result of their geniuses and proclivity to manipulate. There will
always be demogogues, and keeping them from masquerading won't keep them from manipulating. Caveat emptor.<p>
There are lots of other vulnerabilities in an online townhall, but I think the most dangerous is the power that the
"management" has to use the rules of the townhall to serve their own interests. Absolute vodka, er power, corrupts
absolutely, as they say. There need to be safeguards to ensure that the people who set the rules are ultimately accountable
to the people who use the site. For example, at the Democracy Project we are designing our site to have as little
management involvement as possible. There are certain management powers that exist on Slashdot (e.g., bitchslapping)
that we don't think belong in an online townhall. We have also organized ourselves legally in such a way that we will allow
registrants on our site (after it has critical mass) to remove the management in a vote of no-confidence. We don't expect
this to be a regular event, but it's a safeguard that provides a last resort of accountability.<p>
Candidates and their records
by Remus Shepherd <p>
You talk about what the political parties should do to improve their Web sites, but don't mention what people outside
political circles can accomplish. The Web sites you list in your article do *not* have what everyone says they want: An
unbiased checklist of issues referenced to the candidates and their voting record. <p>
Forget the political parties for a moment, as I don't believe they'll ever report unbiased information. That leaves us, the
people. <p>
Do you think there is room for a grassroots organization to collect the voting histories of candidates and publicize their
records? If so, why doesn't such an organization already exist? Could such an organization thrive, or would it be besieged
by political candidates who don't want their true voting histories known?<p>
Scott: First, there are already sites that collect and report the candidate's records. I recommend USA Democracy, Project
Vote-Smart, and THOMAS as excellent sources of info on candidate positions, voting records, and public statements.<p>
But your broader question is important, because I think that as valuable as these and other political information sites are,
they leave a gap that could (should) be filled by a grassroots effort. <p>
The unbiased checklist of positions is a good, but incomplete way to make voting decisions. It's unlikely to include
references to the most current, relevant issues. It overly reduces the complexity of how legislators make voting decisions
(the best policy makers are generally not dogmatic and are good compromisers). And the list of issues is defined and
arbitrary, which makes you wonder who got to decide which issues to include on the list. <p>
So, the gap to me is the open, online townhall, an alternative source of information and political deliberation, an example of
which we've described at our Web site, and are currently developing. This would allow everyone the opportunity to offer
their own checklists, or point to others who have developed checklists that they agree with. But in addition, it would allow
discussion of the most current events, and more importantly, the competing values that underlie policy proposals, neither
of which will ever be adequately addressed by a position checklist.<p>
Can such an organization thrive? I believe so. Grassroots organizations draw their strength from their membership, and so
are not dependent on the approval of candidates in order to exist. So long as such an organization could provide a valuable
service to its membership, it could endure. In fact, I'd say that such an organization would HAVE to be grassroots,
because it must be independent of the political players in order to be effective. Lack of grassroots support is one of the
reasons why it's unlikely that USA Democracy, Vote-Smart, THOMAS, and the commercial sites discussed above will
realize the full vision of the Citizen-centric Internet. <p>
Thanks all. If you want to be alerted when we launch our site, sign up here<p>
Scott<p>
www.democracyproject.org</td>
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