CONGRESSIONAL E-MAIL VOLUME: DAUNTING BUT STABILIZING.
Last accessed on
Inbound e-mail for a similar period to Senators increased 69%.
Despite the respite for House Members, they are still swimming in a sea of online communications.
Part A: Overview and statistics.
The Internet explosion began in 1995 with the introduction of Microsoft Corporation’s Windows 95, and its Internet Explorer. Before this historical watershed the Internet was a sparsely populated domain composed mainly of academics, technophiles and even some political activists.[i] World-wide in December 1995 there were about 16 million users of the Internet [ii] out of a global population of over 4.5 billion (~.0036 %). Just 7 years later in December 2001 a Neilson/NetRatings survey of the largest 22 industrial nations shows at least 422.4 million Earthlings to be online,[iii] (nearly 10% of the world population). About 140 million of these users are in the United States, with 54% of the total American population connecting to the web [iv] at home, work or school.
The rapid diffusion of the Internet and other digital communication devices compared to the technological advances of other eras is staggering. Telegraph, telephones, radio, television and faxing, all spread into the masses at much slower paces. In 1930, United States census figures found the telephone was in only 40% of American households[v], this more than four decades after its invention.[vi]
The Digital Age has brought us the Internet, cell-phones, personal digital assistants [PDA’s] and an array of other wireless communication devices, which together have fundamentally changed the way much of the human race communicates. Today it is common to see a people fully hooked-up ---with cellphone, e-mail pager, and wireless laptop computer--- communicating away while on an Amtrak train or in a local Starbucks. [vii] It all makes (comic-book detective) Dick Tracy’s telephone-wristwatch look primitive by comparison. We may not have closed the last millennium with colonies on the moon (as many predicted during the space race of the 1960’s), but with the new century the Digital Age allows people instant communication to someone (or some group), through any various means portable media, at will, anytime, anywhere. (Of course as long as the person/people on the other end has a compatible device.[viii]) And all this communicating can be accomplished in volume at an affordable cost. Has this not always been the “holy grail” of the techno-communications industry since early human history? [ix]
Armed simply with laptop computer a person can simultaneously surf the web, talk on the phone ---(as many modern computers have a telephone built in)--- send hundreds of faxes, e-mail thousands (--if not millions--) and do it all without leaving the bed of a hotel room. E-mail has become the cheapest and easiest way ever to send mass communication with the lowest going rate for executing one million e-mails at only $200,[x] making e-mail the first tool of mass communication that is readily and cheaply accessible to the masses. Clearly the media of the Internet and Digital Communications has enormous potential as both a means of political communication and a source of political power and influence. The question is: How will this potential be realized?
[i] During the second half of the 1980’s, I was on staff at the global environmental organization Greenpeace’s New York City office (www.greenpeace.org). The organization then had it’s own early Internet portal called GREENLINK. Every day after punching in several dozen DOS keyboard commands ---(back then a mouse was only a rodent)-- we printed out Greenpeace’s issue briefings and news releases from around the globe using a dot-matrix printer. Seems like ancient history now.
[ii] Gromov , Gregory R. History of Internet and WWW: The Roads and Crossroads of Internet History
Available @: http://www.netvalley.com/intvalstat.html and last accessed July 3, 2002.
[iii] Mariano, Gwendolyn: Web Usage Grows Across Globe, CNET News.com, June 10, 2002.
Accessed June 11 2002 @ http://news.com.com/2100-1023-934655.html
[iv] Dreazen, Yochi J. : U.S. Web Usage Hits 54 Percent Report: For first time, more than half of population on Net. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, Feb. 4 2002. Via www.MSNBC.com .
Accessed Feb 5 2002 @ http://www.msnbc.com/news/699335.asp?0na=x2249150-
(Link not currently active)
[v] United States Census Bureau @ http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/census/historic/phone.html Last accessed June 15, 2002
[vi] Though television's invention was in 1929 it remained commercially dormant for nearly twenty years; until it exploded with an equally astounding place from 1948-1954. Windows and Internet Explorer exploded in use shortly after their invention.
[vii] www.MSNBC.com Wireless Web comes to Starbucks. August 21, 2002
Last accessed August 21, 2002@ http://www.msnbc.com/news/797121.asp?0na=x225L171-
[viii] It is possible today for different Digital media to be in use by the communicating parties. For example: I can use my computer to send a e-mail to someone’s e-mail pager. I can also use my email portal to send and receive faxes and I can get e-mail verbally read to me by an electronically generated voice on my cellphone.
[ix] Davis, Richard: The Web Of Politics: The Internet’s Impact on the American Political System. Oxford University Press. Copyright 1999. ISBN: 0-19-511485-X
See pages 28-29 for a brief overview this topic from a political-historical prospective.
[x] Orr, Andrea: Innocent 'Hello' Sells Hot Sex on the Internet.
April 27 2002 , Reuters. Accessed April 28 2002 @ http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=581&e=2&cid=581&u=/nm/20020427/tc_nm/column_nettrends_dc_26 [Link not currently active]
"U.S. Web usage hits 54 percent Report: For first time, more" than half of population on Net"
By Yochi J. Dreazen
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
http://www.msnbc.com/news/699335.asp?0na=x2249150-
WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 — Internet use continued to grow rapidly last year, with new government data showing that the number of Americans using the Web in 2001 passed 50 percent of the population for the first time.
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"More women heading home to surf"
http://www.msnbc.com/news/690460.asp?0na=x227N2Q0-
By Gwendolyn Mariano
Jan. 18 — Women are logging onto the Internet at home at a faster rate than the overall Web population, according to a report released Friday. Web measurement firm Nielsen/NetRatings said the number of female Web surfers at home rose 9 percent in the United States, from 50.4 million in December 2000 to 55 million in December 2001.
THE OVERALL NUMBER of active home Web surfers grew only 6 percent, from 98.6 million in December 2000 to 104.8 million in December 2001.
Nielsen/NetRatings added that 49.8 million U.S. men surfed the Web at home in December 2001, an increase of only 3 percent from the previous year.
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Features Posted December 21, 2001
Net News Lethargy
"Most sites fail to make use of the medium's main strength – speed"
http://ojr.usc.edu/content/story.cfm?request=676
By Amy Langfield, OJR Contributor
"For purposes of this story, the 15 most-trafficked news Web sites were examined on a routine basis during the past three weeks and more closely as breaking news happened. Those top 15 sites were chosen based on Jupiter Media Metrix' September ratings of news sites with the most unique visitors.
They are as follows:
1] CNN.com,
2] MSNBC.com,
3} Time.com,
4} ABCNews.com,
5} NYTimes.com,
6} WashingtonPost.com,
7] USAToday.com,
8] Slate.com,
9] FoxNews.com,
10] LATimes.com,
11] AP.org,
12] Boston.com,
13] Miami.com,
14] USNews.com,
15] WSJ.com.
In addition, several other wildcards were thrown in,
including BBCi, CBS.com, the DrudgeReport, CSMonitor.com, NandoTimes.com and the Guardian."
Asian-Americans and the Internet: The Young and the Connected
For release at noon (Eastern), December 12, 2001
http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=52
34% of Asian-American users get the day’s news online during a typical day, compared with 22% of whites, 20% of Hispanics and 15% of African-American Internet users.
78% of Asian-American users have sought travel information online.
53% of Asian-American users have sought financial information online.
49% of Asian-American users have sought political information online.
68% of Asian-American users have used the Internet for school research, compared with 51% of white users;
59% of Asian-American users have gone online for work-related reasons, compared with 50% of white users.
A table comparing Asian-Americans’ use of the Internet with other groups is on page 10 of this report…………………//////////
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Online Asian-Americans are voracious consumers of information, especially on a typical day.
http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/reports.asp?Report=52&Section=ReportLevel2&Field=Level2ID&ID=352
" The most popular form of information gathering is simply accessing the day’s news – about three-fifths of Internet users of different races have ever gotten the news online.
However, Asian-American users are much more likely to have made getting the news online a part of their daily lives.
Just over a third (34%) of users get the news online on a typical day. In comparison, 22% of white users get the news daily, along with 15% of African-American users and 20% of Hispanics online.
Asian-American users are also more likely than other Internet users to have gotten news on the financial markets, sought travel information, looked up information about their hobbies and gotten political news on a daily basis. Much like others with Internet access, online Asian-American users frequently turn to the Internet to find the answer to a question. Fully three-quarters of Asian-American users have done so at one time or another, and about a fifth do so on a typical day."
http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/0829-123.html
29 Aug 2001 : 13:53
AFL-CIO Hosts World's Greatest Online Labor Day Festival
To: National Desk
Contact: Lauren Cerand, 202-637-5295
Matt Painter, 202-637-5245
both of the AFL-CIO
WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 /U.S. Newswire/ -- "The AFL-CIO opened its
second annual Online Labor Day Festival, billed as the "biggest
hometown Labor Day festival in the USA," at www.aflcio.org/laborday.
It will run through Sept. 21, 2001."
"Cyberspace offers immense new possibilities for working people
to make their voices heard and build 'community' in an entirely new
way," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. "This festival brings
together the best of our culture and history in a powerful way
that's building for the future."
"The AFL-CIO's second annual Online Labor Day Festival is part of
a broader trend of cyber unionism, as unions find new ways to bring
together working people on issues that are important to them.
Today's unions are using technology to help new members organize,
mobilizing members and activists, and celebrating union culture.
Many workers who are forming unions are using an online presence
to keep in contact with each other, and to update supporters.
National INS agents, Delta flight attendants, SBC and Verizon
workers, part-time community college teachers in California, and
SecurityLink workers isolated in trucks all day have all used the
Internet and e-mail successfully to come together in unions.
Mobilization has reached new potential online -- activists
e-mailed their Congressional representatives to oppose Fast Track
trade legislation, commercial actors utilized email and the
Internet to win their strike, and worker activists have used Palm
Pilots for political campaigns and member mobilization.
Some 60 percent of union members have computers, according to a
poll by Peter D. Hart Research, Inc., conducted in January 2000.
The survey also found that 74 percent of union members with
computers have Internet access."
Copyright 2001, U.S. Newswire
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Internet Proves to be Powerful
in Political, Legislative Battles
By Jim Buie
Copyright 2001
Impeachment Sparked Deluge of Downloading and Online Mobilization !!
"The success of Ventura and other Internet-savvy candidates in 1998 wasn't the only evidence of the Internet's emerging political power. The release of the Starr report over the World Wide Web in the fall of 1998 increased overall Internet traffic by as much as 80 percent, and sparked a deluge of heated discussions on and off the Internet.
Alerting and mobilizing people entirely over the Internet, Jim Robinson, the publisher of the conservative Free Republic web site, sponsored an "Impeach Clinton" rally at the Washington Monument on Halloween. It attracted more than 4,000 people, and set a new standard for grassroots organizing by Internet. "I don't think anything like this has ever happened before, where thousands of people who didn't know each other get together in a place thousands of miles from home," Brian Buckley, counsel for the web site, told The Washington Post."
"Conversely, more than 500,000 Internet users, fed up with the impeachment process, signed a petition and pledged more than $10 million through the web site Move On.org to defeat the politicians they believe ignored voters' wishes to censure President Clinton and move on to other business. MoveOn.org ultimately collected more than $2 million and donated it to progressive candidates in Campaign 2000. Since the election, MoveOn.org has established itself as an effective advocacy group."
http://www.us.net/indc/column2.htm#Impeachment
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the Internet
and the
Impeachment of Bill Clinton
by TechnoPolitcal
Blog Staff
~~ Bill Clinton's recreational dilly dallys and the disproportionate Republican impeachment , evolved , both from and into an important touchstone of early political & general internet history.
Matt Druge's pioneering website lit the Impreachment Scandal Fire, that spread in no small way by the internet, esp. so considering that there really was not that many people online in 1998.
The effect of the Internet on the Presidency of Bill Clinton cannot be underestimated. Clinton haters and muckrakers were among the first to use the Web to spread their wares, with Matt Druge becoming the first Internet news superstar by breaking the Monica Lewinisky story. (Though, where is Matt today in 2002?) As well the final report by the office of Special Prosecutor Richard Starr on the Whitewater ---(which grew into the Lewinsky mess)--- shook the world wide web in a way thatno event had no event had done so before.
“The release of the Starr report over the World Wide Web in the fall of 1998 increased overall Internet traffic by as much as 80 percent, and sparked a deluge of heated discussions on and off the Internet.” [111]
President Clinton had the mixed blessing of the Cyber-Activism and Political Information Portals (PIPs) taking root during his term.The Internet certainly was a contributing factor in his impeachment by the House as documented in these quotes from cyber-political journalist Jim Buie:
“Alerting and mobilizing people entirely over the Internet, Jim Robinson, the publisher of the conservativeFree Republic web site, sponsored an "ImpeachClinton" rally at theWashington Monument on Halloween [1998]. It attracted more than 4,000 people, and set a new standard for grassroots organizing by Internet,” [112]
However the Internet may haveplayed an even larger (but still minor in my opinion) role inClinton's subsequent acquittal by the Senate.
“… more than 500,000 Internet users, fed up with the impeachment process, signed a petition and pledged more than $10 million through the web sitewww.Move On.org to defeat the politicians they believe ignored voters' wishes to censure President Clinton and move on tother business. MoveOn.org ultimately collected more than $2 million[113] and donated it to progressive candidates in Campaign 2000.” [114]
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~Technopolitical editor's note:~~
~~ In the 2000 Congressional races the Internet played a debatable role in overall election strategies. E-Advocates (a firm that manages online campaigns) and Juno Online Services (hosts of many campaign websites @ www.juno.com ) ---- and who are by no means unbiased observers---- did a post-2000 election study of Congressional candidates and their websites. I want to quote from their finding summary first and then highlight what I see to be the holes in their arguments.
“In Campaign 2000, challengers who won tight congressional races against incumbents also won the battle of the Web, according to a post-election review of congressional candidate Web sites by e-advocates.com and Juno Online Services, Inc. The study found that in the 8 toss-up U.S. House and Senate races where a challenger won, an overwhelming majority – 75 percent – employed a superior Web strategy, as defined by online voters in a February 2000 e-advocates/Juno survey and candidate rankings on top search engines. Additionally, in seven out of the eight races, the winning challenger raised less money than the losing incumbent – an anomaly in the results of all congressional races nationwide”.
It is my firm believe based on experience as a political professional, that core organization of any campaign's staffing and activist base is the most important factor –--even over money--- in any successful election run or lobby-issue crusade. The fact that the less-funded challengers with effective websites fared better than those without effective websites, more than likely means that these campaigns were simply more energetic and better organized to turn out their voting supporters. It is not so much that their website helped them win, but that producing a solid website was reflective of good core organization. Richard Davis correctly asserts that "the Web plainly is less useful than, say, direct mail or newsletters" [102] in getting out information about a campaign and/or candidate. And until the digital divide is completely closed in the
The message that the Internet can only play a small supporting role in winning election campaigns seems to have registered with Congressional candidates in the upcoming 2002 elections. A study by the Bivings Group shows that as of March 2002 “only 29 percent of Senators and Representatives up for election in 2002, have clearly marked campaign websites.” [103] The same study put Republicans as better equipped in using the Internet to energize their bases, and for adding to those numbers. So as of now the GOP is winning this Cyber-Electioneering arms race and only a post-mortum of the 2002 race will tell if it will also translate into electoral victories.
I do plan to do a follow up when that scorecard is in. For there are on the horizon in this year's 2002 elections several trials of voter-peer-to-peer Cyber-Electioneering [sort of like phone-tress but in cyber-space], and the experimentation with techno-real-time monitoring of voter turnout on election day, possibly enabling elections campaigns to better target election day voter pulls as the day progresses. As we have seen in the 2000 American Presidential elections every vote can count (---unless the Supreme Court says no---) so any cyber-tools that may get you additional votes will eventually find their way into the permanent arsenals of election campaigns. (We will see if any of the above mentioned cyber-electioneering "experiments" become worth writing about after the 2002 election.)
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http://www.findarticles.com/cf_natrvw/m4PRN/2000_Nov_20/67456681/p1/article.jhtml?term=cyberpolitics
Nov 20, 2000
e-advocates/Juno Post-Election Review Finds Net Savvy Challengers Defeat Incumbents.
In Toss-Up Races, Congressional Challengers
Used the Web to Advantage
WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 /PRNewswire/ --
In Campaign 2000, challengers who won tight congressional races against incumbents also won the battle of the Web, according to a post-election review of congressional candidate Web sites by e- advocates and Juno Online Services, Inc. (Nasdaq: JWEB).
The study found that in the 8 toss-up U.S. House and Senate races where a challenger won, an overwhelming majority -- 75 percent -- employed a superior Web strategy, as defined by online voters in a February 2000 e-advocates/Juno survey and candidate rankings on top search engines. Additionally, in seven out of the eight races, the winning challenger raised less money than the losing incumbent -- an anomaly in the results of all congressional races nationwide.
Among winning challengers in toss-up House and Senate races, all had Web sites that provided information and features desired by voters online, including issue statements, campaign e-mail addresses, volunteer and online contribution opportunities, and online voter registration capabilities.
. Eighty-eight percent of winning challengers provided issue statements that could provide the basis for voters to compare candidates, a feature desired by 79 percent of Internet users. Sixty-three percent of winning challengers provided campaign e-mail addresses, a feature of interest to 73 percent of Internet users.
All victorious challengers provided Internet users with the ability to volunteer with their campaigns online, a feature identified as important by 13 percent of Internet users, and 88 percent of winning challengers gave Internet users the ability to make campaign contributions online, a feature of interest to 7 percent of Internet users
. Thirty-eight percent of winning challengers offered online voters the ability to register to vote online, a feature of interest to 42 percent of Internet users.
"Today's savvy candidates aren't just going door-to-door, they're connecting with voters desktop to desktop," said Pam Fielding, principal, e- advocates. "With 59 percent of U.S. adults now online, no candidate in a tight race can afford to ignore the Web -- or the needs of e-voters," said Nicole Duritz, also a principal, e-advocates.
The firms also tested the ranking of candidate sites with top search engines -- an important strategy for campaigns to connect with online voters.
The search engine test found that 75 percent of winning challengers in tight races achieved a first-page, search-engine ranking with at least three of the four major engines as identified by Media Metrix -- Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and Lycos. Reviewers gave candidates a successful rating with a search engine if, after entering their first and last names into the search field, the search engine provided a link to the candidates' official campaign Web sites on the first page of the search results.
In seven out of the eight races analyzed by e-advocates and Juno, the winning challenger raised less money than the losing incumbent.
According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) data analyzed by U.S. PIRG and reported in an unrelated study, only seven percent of winning congressional candidates nationwide raised less money than their opponents. Michael Cornfield, George Washington University Associate Research Professor and Research Director of George Washington University's Democracy Online Project, observed that the findings suggest a strong Internet strategy can "help financial underdogs gain better footing."
"Election 2000 will go down in history as the first presidential cycle where the Net played a decisive role in political campaigns.
Candidates and elected officials who underestimated the virtual voter were likely to suffer for it," said Roger Stone, Vice President of Juno Online Services and director of the Juno Advocacy Network, Juno's Washington D.C.-based public interest and political advertising division.
To view a chart detailing candidate Internet performance, please visit http://www.e-advocates.com/survey .
The U.S. Senate race for Washington State remains undecided and, for this reason, is not included in the analysis.
About e-advocates
e-advocates, based in Washington, DC, is a full-service Internet advocacy consulting firm dedicated to helping public affairs and advocacy organizations harness the power of the Internet to achieve legislative and political priorities.
Principals Pam Fielding and Nicole Duritz are leading experts in the field of cyberpolitics. Fielding is coauthor of the recently published book, The Net Effect: How Cyberadvocacy is Changing the Political Landscape, which highlights how the Internet is reconnecting citizens with government. e-advocates is a subsidiary of Capitol Advantage, the premier innovator of Internet-based political tools and services.
Through the use of its products, hundreds of organizations have promoted their agenda and influenced the political process by engaging individuals in political dialogue. Survey results can be viewed at http://www.e-advocates.com/survey . To reach Pam Fielding and Nicole Duritz for comment, please call 202/955-3001.
About Juno
Juno Online Services, Inc. is a leading provider of Internet access to millions of computer users throughout the United States
Founded in 1996, the company provides multiple levels of service, including free basic Internet access, billable premium dial-up service, and (in certain markets) high-speed broadband access. Juno's revenues are derived primarily from the subscription fees charged for its billable premium services, from the sale of advertising, and from various forms of electronic commerce.
Based on its total of 3.7 million active subscribers during the month of September 2000, Juno is currently the nation's third largest provider of dial- up Internet services, after AOL and EarthLink. As of September 30, 2000, Juno had approximately 12.77 million total registered subscriber accounts.
For more information about Juno, visit http://www.juno.com/corp . To get a copy of the Juno software, go to http://www.juno.com or call 1-800-TRY-JUNO.
COPYRIGHT 2000 PR
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_natrvw/m4PRN/2000_Nov_20/67456681/p1/article.jhtml?term=cyberpolitics
