Internet and Politics

Title: the internet and politics, or the internet and presidential campaigns

Basic Idea: I imagine an internet and politics session during election season would be of great interest and very timely. People can talk about what they are reading/seeing everyday. We could partner with KSG, others. The center for internet and politics at GW or Pew Center might be other good partners.

The session could focus on how the Internet is transforming presidential campaigns--increasing direct citizen involvement (or not), changing fundraising, blogging, outreach, organization, etc. What is new and what is different? Is it transformative or just new tools for old campaign strategies?

We could have someone like Joe Nye moderate, and David Gergen, other KSG faculty on the panel. Maybe a big MSM news person could also moderate--tim russert, someone from PBS/NPR, etc. If we could get a campaign rep from the obama, clinton, mcain, and former romney, guliani, even dean campaigns could add to the real world perpsective and keep it from being too academic. Zephyr Teachout would be a good panelist. I'm sure we could fill a panel just with ksg people in town, but would want broader representation probably.

from GK: Great set of ideas, I would suggest narrowing down the issues because otherwise it's quite possible for people to talk past each other. Fundraising is probably the most well-covered of the ones you mentioned; what I'm most interested in is the capacity to generate real-world action. e.g. my.barackobama.com enables virtual phonebanking. what else is possible but needs to be tested? what's transferable to non-electoral contexts?