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Internet empowers grass-roots politics

By Kristi Heim
Seattle Times business reporter

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She turned on her computer, surveyed dozens of Web sites across the country and added her own thoughts to the political conversation circulating on the Internet.

All day long, the 23-year-old Seattleite who writes on the blog nykola.com turned to the Web to keep her finger on the pulse of the election. Television, muted, was just a backdrop to keep one eye on the ever-changing red and blue map.

Rob Salkowitz was up early, too. As election returns came in, Salkowitz, 37, sat at his computer carrying on a six-hour live conversation on his blog, emphasisadded.com, with readers from Seattle to Philadelphia to Holland.

In the end, the election results produced elation for Wates and depression for Salkowitz. But no matter what side, people on the left and the right were engaged more than ever before, using the Web as a tool for political participation.

This year, the Internet, a mass medium for barely a decade, ushered in fundamental changes in the way people access information, share ideas and connect to each other.

"Web-based tools are making it vastly easier to participate in meaningful political action, and they are also enhancing the meaning of small actions in ways that create a virtuous cycle of greater activity," writes Micah Sifry on the Web site Personal Democracy Forum.

With each major election cycle, the Internet evolves to take on a new role. In the 1996 election, as the Internet started to become widely used, it was mostly a source of information, producing heavy traffic on news sites. In 2000, the Internet became a tool for organizing ideas and people, providing a forum for organizations to communicate and transmit information.

This time around, with Web logs, the Internet became a global slate for anyone to express an opinion, debate issues and connect with like-minded people.

It also began to influence how campaigns are run. With the help of his Web campaign, Howard Dean raised more money than Bill Clinton did a decade ago. And volunteers could go to a Web site, sign up in minutes and get names and phone numbers of voters in swing states to reach with campaigns.

On Tuesday, the volume of conversations on the Web reached a crescendo. The number of postings to blogs rose to nearly 800,000, double the daily average, said David Sifry, founder and chief executive of Technorati, which monitors Web logs. David and Micah Sifry are brothers.
 
For people like Wates, the Internet virtually replaced conventional media.

"Who needs a television?" she asked. "The Internet offers you real-time information, polling numbers, breaking stories, and all types of commentary that often takes hours to make it to television."

This election, the Web became the place more people turned to as a trusted source.

"Election commercials are awful, phone calls you're getting are horrendous," said Wates. "It's hard for me to see how anybody is making their judgments without the Internet. I think they are at a loss."

She thinks, as do many other online devotees, that reporting on traditional media is biased. So she would rather find information from sources that are clear about what their bias happens to be.

The Web has also created political communities not otherwise possible.

Salkowitz, a strategic consultant at Microsoft, held online debates with a Republican friend across the country, shared ideas with people he's never met, and donated money to candidates in other states.

It might be easy for a conservative African-American Christian to feel isolated in Seattle. But on the Internet, Wates found plenty of people who relate to her point of view.

In fact, one of the most significant developments this year was that the Internet empowered people at a local level.

With the election over, no doubt the punditry will subside. By the time the next election cycle ramps up again in four years, it's anyone's guess what role the Internet will play.

But it's a good guess that it won't be going away.

"Instead of yelling at their televisions, people could sit down at their computer and have a conversation, and that conversation could turn into local action and dollars," said David Sifry of Technorati.

Kristi Heim: 206-464-2718 or kheim@seattletimes.com