While old-media dinosaurs like Cokie and Steven Roberts bash the Web as a threat to representative democracy, netizens are proving them wrong at democracy.net.
With a mission to foster new avenues of civic participation, democracy.net is dragging the art of politics into cyberspace - think C-SPAN interactive. Cobbled together on a shoestring budget, the site is the latest joint venture between Voters Telecommunications Watch and the Center for Democracy and Technology.
Democracy.net is already creating a stir - among elected officials and netizens. A recent cybercast of congressional hearings on cryptography underscores the promise of new-media politics: whereas only 100 people could fit into the well-appointed room in the Senate's Russell Building, more than 700 gathered online. Representatives Rick White (R-Washington) and Anna Eshoo (D-California) and outgoing FCC chairman Reed Hundt have all hosted RealAudio chats.
"TV doesn't allow interaction," says CDT's Jonah Seiger. "The Net provides an opportunity to create government without walls."
Electric Word is a monthly department of Wired magazine.
