Where have you gone Denny J?
Last Tuesday marked the triumphant return of Dr. Dennis Johnson, and he did not disappoint.
His depiction of the Congress Online project paints a picture of our dim reality: Most of our representatives are old farts who haven't the slightest idea what the word blog means, let alone who to write one.
His timeline, beginning in 1994 with Senator Ted Kennedy being the pioneer of House websites, demonstrated just how reluctant Congress has been to embrace new technology, or new anything for that matter. It would take nearly ten full years, that's almost a decade people, before all members of Congress followed Kennedy's example and created a website of their own.
It is an interesting tribute to our political systems resistance to change. The way in which Congress has accepted the Internet acts almost as a microcosm of how our entire poltical system works. The status quo is placed at the forefront, change is resisted, but eventually there is progress.
But credit must be given where credit is due. There are now 160 members of the Congressional Internet Caucus, political blogs are all the rage and even some Congressional Web sites are beginning to use them (although we have discussed at length the problems with this), and we continue to see the impact the Internet plays in campaigns, whether from a fundraising point of view or from an organizational standpoint.
A few months ago, Rightclick Strategies (shameless plug) released a poster of milestones in the digital decade, showing a similar timeline of how Politicians have slowly yet surely embraced new technologies. So as we discuss the revolutionary possibilities of the Internet, it is important to keep in mind that if this timeline is any indication the snails pace at which this "revolution" will occur.
His depiction of the Congress Online project paints a picture of our dim reality: Most of our representatives are old farts who haven't the slightest idea what the word blog means, let alone who to write one.
His timeline, beginning in 1994 with Senator Ted Kennedy being the pioneer of House websites, demonstrated just how reluctant Congress has been to embrace new technology, or new anything for that matter. It would take nearly ten full years, that's almost a decade people, before all members of Congress followed Kennedy's example and created a website of their own.
It is an interesting tribute to our political systems resistance to change. The way in which Congress has accepted the Internet acts almost as a microcosm of how our entire poltical system works. The status quo is placed at the forefront, change is resisted, but eventually there is progress.
But credit must be given where credit is due. There are now 160 members of the Congressional Internet Caucus, political blogs are all the rage and even some Congressional Web sites are beginning to use them (although we have discussed at length the problems with this), and we continue to see the impact the Internet plays in campaigns, whether from a fundraising point of view or from an organizational standpoint.
A few months ago, Rightclick Strategies (shameless plug) released a poster of milestones in the digital decade, showing a similar timeline of how Politicians have slowly yet surely embraced new technologies. So as we discuss the revolutionary possibilities of the Internet, it is important to keep in mind that if this timeline is any indication the snails pace at which this "revolution" will occur.
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