*** Democracies Online Newswire - http://www.e-democracy.org/do *** Below are a set of links with "numbers" and other analysis related to the use of the Internet in the U.S. elections. - Steven Clift, Democracies Online From: http://democracyonline.org/ 2000 Post-Election Survey Survey Shows Online Public is Growing in Numbers and Sophistication Press Release Summary and Charts http://democracyonline.org/databank/dec2000survey.shtml Key Chart: Types of Online Civic Participation (Figure is percentage of Net users who answered "Yes") 54% - Sent or received e-mail jokes about the candidates or campaign. 39% - Sent or received e-mail about the election with friends or family. 25% - Contacted or got information about political campaigns. 10% - Contacted partisan interest groups. 10% - Participated in a live chat or web-based discussion forum. 2% - Donated money to non-partisan organizations. 1% - Donated money to political candidates. [CLIFT COMMENT (MORE LINKS BELOW): Finally, someone surveyed the "e-mail" question. Thank you Democracy Online Project. I think the web is a very passive medium from an organizers perspective. E-mail is the where the e-citizens roam. Think about it - your e-mail box is the part of the Internet that you really own, you decide what to read or delete, you organize your own folders, and you can publish to others either one at time or to groups. Now that is a tool of the active citizen. Think of the effectiveness of the web this way - If you have a web page and no visits it, do you really have a web page? Back on Nov. 1 I noted <http://www.egroups.com/message/do-wire/732>, "... and finally the real story about the Internet and last minute citizen-to-citizen election influence. I am getting handful of cc: messages everyday on this whole Nader/Gore thing - from _individuals_ e- mailing their friends as well as random e-mail online petitions. Having just thrown a dart at the board ;-) it tells me that 95 percent of all online political group communication occurs privately among friends and family - in social networks via E-MAIL. In the last week of the election don't be surprised if the e-mail masses have a great "politics online moment" that greatly influences the soft Nader/Bush/Gore/Other supporters and perhaps gets a few remaining undecideds to choose a candidate because X,Y,Z friends e- mail (tell) them to do so." No future Internet and politics survey will be complete without a battery of questions that dig more deeply into e-mail usage. Questions about online interactivity should also separate out the various form of online interaction - chat, web-forum, e-mail lists, and newsgroups. Live chat (did anyone check out the post-election chats on the news sites, what did you think?) is very different from asynchronous communication and web forums have much higher attention and publishing barriers than e-mail lists. These difference would make comparative information about them very useful for those who want to make interactivity a fundamental part of real politics and public problem-solving. END CLIFT COMMENT] From: http://pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=27 Internet Election News Audience Seeks Convenience, Familiar Names: Youth Vote Influenced By Online Information A joint release from the Pew Research Center for People and the Press and the Pew Internet & American Life Project From: http://netelection.org/ January 10, 2001 NetElection 2000: The Rebirth of Interactive Politics Rescheduled from December 5 The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania will present findings from its unique archive of the Election 2000 web campaign as well as national survey findings, experimental studies of what works on the web and case studies of six congressional districts. Register online. December 12, 2000 YouDecideWhoWon.org: A Proposal for a Digital Archive of Florida's Ballots by Christopher D. Hunter and Steven M. Schneider netelection.org As "Presidential Survivor" – the latest reality show on television – moves closer to its ultimate conclusion, one of the many questions left unanswered is the emerging role of the Internet in our democratic arena. http://netelection.org/commentary/2000044.php3 November 20, 2000 Dead Web by Steven M. Schneider netelection.org The behavior of the candidates during this overtime period provides even more evidence that neither Gore nor Bush are Internet candidates, and that the 2000 campaign was neither won nor lost on the Internet. Real Internet candidates would be using the web now to make their cases strongly and consistently through document archives and links, and providing fuel for the communities that frequent their sites. ^ ^ ^ ^ 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. ***
