They pulled facts and figures to refute claims and bolster arguments from state and local Web sites on everything from education funding formulas to national studies on school and classroom size. They pummeled local politicians and administrators with e-mail, debated strategy over their own e-mail chain letters and mobilized turnout at public hearings and meetings. Then a computer-savvy mother put up a Web site for the group, complete with ongoing reports about the decision-making process and electronic addresses of influential policy makers who would weigh in on the issue.
The buzzword for this kind of digital activism is a "flash campaign," so named for the instantaneous mobilization of support that can be generated in the flash of a mouse click. In 1998, Berkeley, California, software entrepreneurs Wes Boyd and Joan Blade put online organizing on the map with a Web site calling for Congress to censure President Clinton, end impeachment proceedings and move on to more important business. In the intervening two years, successful flash campaigns have been mounted for political fundraising and to drum up support for issues ranging from gun control to the E-rate.
Today, the speed and clout of the Internet are trickling down to the state and local levels. In Southern California, leaders in communities trying to secede from the city of Los Angeles are galvanizing political support among an otherwise complacent and diverse group of residents and business leaders through readily available Internet connections that bring information directly into people's homes and offices. "It's like having a conversation right in your own living room," says Bill Silverthorn, one-time college activist and now a computer salesman who is spearheading the flash campaign in the L.A. harbor communities of San Pedro, Wilmington and Harbor City. Moreover, these Web sites, message boards and e-mail chain letters imbue organizers with an unprecedented ability to marshal a turnout at a public hearing or call attention to a hot topic through political e- mail.
With the Columbine massacre as a horrible backdrop, the Colorado legislature has been on the receiving end of this kind of focused, high-tech lobbying over gun control. "With every bill that has been proposed through all the sessions, I have been barraged by a bunch of e-mails from both sides of the question," says Colorado Speaker of the House Russell George. A recent electronic-era convert, George now says he prefers e-mail to any other form of constituent communication. "My e-mail is on all of the time at the statehouse, so when I hear that little ring that tells me I have a message, I know each time a message comes in. If I hear a lot of rings, I know something is up."
Not surprisingly, George is in the minority among his legislative colleagues, the bulk of whom are considerably less savvy about using technology to communicate with constituents and, increasingly, each other. Still, a growing number of Colorado lawmakers are beginning to take advantage of online tools that help them track myriad legislative issues. George says staffers have recently started entering minutes of committee meetings into networked laptop computers that their bosses can monitor in real time from desktops in another part of the building. Last year, lobbyists paid for and set up an Internet pipeline giving them virtual access to a number of public policy debates.
It's not just high-priced lobbyists who are benefiting from cyber advocacy, however. The Internet is leveling the playing field even more dramatically for community groups with limited resources, say authors Daniel Bennet and Pam Fielding in a new book, "The Net Effect," about Information Age political organizing. Among other things, the book chronicles how six nonprofit education groups with a budget of $1,200 went up against the well-heeled telecommunications industry in the 1998 defense of the E-rate program that funds Internet connectivity for local schools and libraries.
Citizens everywhere who have Internet access are downloading information from state and city Web sites, developing positions, building coalitions and getting their message out. Just a few short years ago, it would have taken weeks for organizers to generate that kind of research and reaction to an issue. "I see it at every meeting," George observes. "Public debates have more data. The discussion is more substantive." Whether the speed and volume of Web- derived and -driven information will lead to better government decisions is anybody's guess. But one thing is for sure: State and local policy makers are going to be the target of such campaigns.
