The Internet Constituency
David Weinberger
The Republic of the Internet certainly has been downgraded since the day John Perry Barlow declared its independence in 1996. The Internet is not a nation, it's not a state, and it's not even a county. But is it at least a constituency? If so, most of the presidential candidates are campaigning there about as seriously as they are in Alaska: it'll be surprising if their campaign plane alights there even to refuel...with one encouraging exception.
The traditional sense of "constituency"needs some stretching if it's going to fit the Internet: the Net isn't a district represented by a legislator and the majority of its inhabitants aren't US citizens. But perhaps there is an Internet constituency of a different sort: a set of people whose enthusiasm for Net life is reflected in a set of expectations and mores. It's a constituency that cuts across political boundaries to include Barlow and, say, Glenn "Instapundit"Reynolds, but probably not the CEO who has his email printed out for him. It would likely include everyone under 23 who's grown up with the Net as an expected part of her world and every grandparent using IM to keep in touch with the grandchildren.
And just what are the expectations and mores of the Internet constituency? Ay caramba! Books have been written on this topic. Can we just say that the constituency absorbs some of the key characteristics of the Internet itself: A belief in the power of self-organization, a distaste for controlling centers, a jones for conversation, an implicit egalitarianism, an insistence that people speak in their own voice. Can we leave it there? Please?
Actually, the candidates have made it easier for us. We can go the via negativa definitional route because in almost every case, their web sites are examples of what it means not to appeal to the Internet constituency. They are generally information portals at best and electronic billboards at worst.
Among the worst of the billboards has to be Al Sharpton's site: a couple of video clips and four news clips. The "media"link leads to the same video clips and news clips. Carol Moseley Braun's site is marginally better because it has links to "The Issues,"a page of generalities about the need to "rediscover the Constitution"and owing "our children a legacy of foresight..."A speech on March 22 is still marked as "new"on the home page, and it is indeed the latest update.
As if to prove that that lack of webbiness is not due solely to lack of money, Dick Gephardt 's site is as almost as bad. At least it has links to policy statements, with extended links on the page about his health care proposal. On the other hand, the fact that the Gephardt site has been professionally designed only makes its staidness less forgivable; there's something appealing about Braun's low-rent digs.
Technically, the worst of the lot is the Bush-Cheney site that has nothing on it but a place to donate money, a place to submit your email address, and a quote we can be 100% confident the President didn't write. The site is clearly maked as "Temporary," however, so we can cut it a break. For about another two days.
In the next tier are sites that function as portals to information. They are complex, updated at least reasonably frequently, and are slick and useful. But they use the Internet as an Information Highway for appealing to the same old constituencies in the same old way; the "more"buttons at the bottom of articles ought to just read "blah blah blah"instead.
Dennis Kucinich at least has the advantage of holding differentiating beliefs, so in the opening paragraphs he can write: "As President, I will cancel NAFTA and the WTO..."Other than that, his site is distinguished from, say, Joe Lieberman's only by being less professional and livelier. Lieberman's site has all the appeal of a Claritin ad. There are links to positions and speeches, and a promising link to "My story"that turns out to be - of course - a lifeless recapitulation of the milestones in his public life. The chance that we're hearing Lieberman's own words? Let's hope it's zero.
Bob Graham is competing with Gephardt for Web mediocrity: some policy statements, an official biography, and a plea for cash. Here's just how lively and "voiced"Graham's site is:
Welcome!
Welcome to my campaign's home page! I appreciate your interest in my candidacy and our country.
The slickest of the information portals is John Edwards's. It's up-to-date, easy to navigate, and it even has a note about accessibility for the disabled, pointing out a button on many pages that bumps the font size up a notch; that may not be the preferred way to handle the accessibility issue, but it's a nice acknowledgement that web pages aren't the same as printed pages only thinner.
About as webby as any of these folks get is to ask supporters to email them if they see an article in the media that needs a smack upside the lede, as at Kucinich's site. Bob Graham is among those providing a form for sending a supportive message to a friend, but he gets the Anti-Webby award for how it's implemented. If you pick one of 9 listed issues, specific boilerplate will be added to the message. You can also "add a personal message."When you preview what you're sending to your close personal friends, you see:
Dear <your friend's name will appear here>
<your personal message will appear here>
I'm excited about Bob Graham's campaign for President of the United States! Take a look at his new web site at:
http://www.grahamforpresident.com
You can sign up to make a donation, volunteer, learn all about Bob, and see why I support him whole-heartedly.
<an paragraph [sic] about an issue will appear here if you specify one>
Bob has served his state and this country for over 30 years, and I know that you will agree with me that he is the right person to serve all of America as President of the United States.
Sincerely,
<your name will appear here>
Ah, yes, winning the hearts and minds of the Internet Constituency by spamming them! Brilliant.
On the other hand, the page has a plain English privacy statement, as does Edwards, Gephardt, and Kerry. Kucinich, Braun, Sharpton and Dean don't have one even on their email sign-up pages; this is a particularly egregious omission by Dean since his page requires you to disclose your name and real world address just to get his stinking newsletter.
That's a surprising lapse since Dean and Kerry are the only two candidates whose sites show signs of understanding the Internet constituency. And of the two, Dean is ahead by the virtual equivalent of a country mile. (Here's where I must disclose that I personally am supporting Dean by doing some volunteer work for the campaign...in part because I generally like what the campaign is doing via the Net.)
Kerry's site understands that the Internet lets you do more than publish text and graphics: As I write, the lead article on the site is the announcement of his health plan. The article summarizes the proposal, lets you read the press release in HTML or PDF, makes it easy to send the link to friends, and lets you view it via Real or the Windows Media Player. (What, no Quicktime? Don't Mac owners vote?) Someone there understands the Net's publishing modalities. In fact, it understands that the Internet is not just a publishing medium but is a set of global conversations not all of which are going to occur on Kerry's site. An "Organize Online" section encourages you to talk about Kerry in chats, message boards and newsgroups, referring your interlocutors to JohnKerry.com. The campaign has an email address where you can let it know about the discussions you've seeded. And there's a link to a page called "Start our own JohnKerry.com virtual precinct"that unfortunately turns out to mean simply signing up friends to get mail from JohnKerry.com, Nice meme, though.
The Dean site is different. It's got the requisite links to rather boring expositions of the Dean stand on the usual issues, and it makes it easy for you to send in some cash. Like Kerry's site, it encourages users to get out into the chat rooms and mailing lists to talk about Dean, and to let the campaign know about it.
But it's got some other things going for it in its appeal to the Internet constituency.
For one thing, the site looks like it was done by a bunch of webheads. The layout is, oh, let's say "active,"as if it's being put together by a group with too much to say amidst too much going on.
And the campaign is doing something smart about using the Internet to organize in the real world, encouraging supporters to join MeetUp.com, a site that enables groups to get together in the real world, typically at a bar that's also signed up with MeetUp.com. So far, 22,000 people have enrolled in the Dean MeetUp program. And any one of the attendees can upload to the Dean corner of MeetUp.com photos taken at the gatherings. No permission required. Just point to the photo on your hard drive and add a caption. Not only is this decentralization and trust a mark of webthink, the attitude of keeping it uncontrolled until jerks make control necessary is itself quite Netty.
But the true webbiness of the campaign comes through in its inclusion of lots of real voices. This is least apparent in the writings signed by Dean himself -- his welcome is as stiff as any of 'em -- and is most apparent in the official weblog.
Although Dean occasionally contributes to the blog, his entries tend to be formal and feel out of place. The bulk of the writing is done by staffers Matthew Gross and Kate O'Connor, with occasional entries by Joe Trippi, the campaign manager. This is a real blog, not a transparent attempt to sound like one. It's updated several times a day, and it's full of piss and vinegar. O'Connor reports from the road, and Gross pulls in media reports and punches back when attacked.
A case in point:
When the Democratic Leadership Council said that Dean supporters are part of an "activist elite" outside the Democratic mainstream, the campaign featured it on the front page of their website, asked people to write to the DLC, gathered comments, and ran excerpts ("Avast, ye scurvy centrist dogs, and prepare to be boarded!") and made all the comments available as a PDF file. Gross responded immediately in the blog just the fiery way a blogger would ("Karl Rove himself couldn’t have written a memo better designed to fracture the Democratic Party"). Trippi is capable of jumping in and aiming a few kicks with the glee of a natural flamer.
This is the first real blog written by a national campaign staff; the Gary Hart blog - despite Wired's enthusiasm - was more like a series of weekly columns. Because the Dean blog is written by staffers who sign their names, we get a sense that this campaign isn't aiming at building a robotic marketing machine. Because it's sharp edged and reads like a rough draft, we get the sense that the candidate is ok with candor and tolerant not only of disagreement but even of human fallibility. Because the candidate contributes occasionally, we know he at least reads the damn thing.
That's how you appeal to the Internet constituency.
Except, the Dean site has no policy statement on Internet or high tech issues. (Dean's staff says one is being prepared.) Neither does any candidate's site except Kerry's,
Which makes the Internet into an underserved constituency at best. In a country where the largest bloc of voters supports the Doesn't Vote party, you'd think all the candidates would be more attentive to any proto-constituency they can inspire.Apparently, for almost all of them, running a campaign the old way - top down and center out - is just too familiar.
In Flags We Trust:
Who has how many flags on his/her site?
Candidate |
Flag in background of banner |
Flag in logo |
Candidate photographed in front of flag |
Additional |
Total Flagginess Score (out of 10) |
Sharpton |
Tiny flag barely visible in small photo of Sharpton at some event |
1 |
|||
Gephardt |
X |
Particularly blurry |
2.5 |
||
Dean |
X |
|
3.5 |
||
Lieberman |
X |
|
3.5 |
||
Braun |
X |
Wearing flag lapel pin |
4.5 |
||
Edwards |
X |
X |
|
7 |
|
Kerry |
X |
X |
Flag fills a map of the US |
7 |
|
Kucinich |
X |
X |
|
7 |
|
Graham |
X |
X |
Red, and blue stripes with a white star are part of his logo |
8.5 |
|
Bush |
X |
X |
X |
|
10 |
David Weinberger is the author of Small Pieces Loosely Joined and a weblog. [mail]