Net communities may be key to future of politics

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Business Web sites that foster an aura of community trust may hold the key to the future of online politics.

A panel of Internet gurus gathered Friday at the fifth annual Votes, Bits & Bytes conference here, held by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School to discuss the impact of Internet business models on online politics.

The panelists said the most valuable lesson online campaigners may be able to garner from Web-based companies is that building a sense of trust remains at the center of winning loyalty from customers or political followers.

Among the panelists were Web luminaries including Esther Dyson, the former head of Web governance body the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, and Craig Newmark, the founder of classifieds and community site Craigslist. Dyson currently serves as editor at large for CNET Networks, publisher of News.com. Newmark works in customer service at Craigslist.

"The golden rule is really how people want us to operate," Newmark said. "They want business sites and political sites to adhere to our shared values of being fair with one another and treating each other with respect."

Joining the two Web celebrities on stage were Tod Cohen, deputy general counsel for government relations at online auctioneer eBay; Jonathan Zuck, the president of the Association for Competitive Technology, an IT industry group; and Debora Spar, a professor at Harvard Business School.

To Cohen, the reason why eBay has been so successful is linked inextricably to the morals expressed on the company's business card-size ideology outline. The values card, the brainchild of company founder Pierre Omidyar, includes reminders that people are generally good, that they usually treat others the way they wish to be treated, and that the company strives to foster an open, honest environment among its customers.

The satisfaction of eBay users is almost solely dependent on the integrity of other members of the site; consumers buy and sell goods based on an honor system that demands accurate descriptions of items for sale and the promise to pay for goods purchased. If eBay members didn't trust in this system, the company never would have made it, Cohen said.

Newmark echoed the sentiment of creating mutual faith between sites and customers. He said the success of Craigslist, an advertising-free classifieds site in which eBay now holds a 25 percent stake, could be channeled into Internet politics.

"It's an issue of moral values," Newmark said. "People want to know the truth and be treated fairly--that's the American dream."

Newmark acknowledged that people can still be misled by politicians' false promises, even after being fed a diet of legitimate ideals. But as with deceptive business practices, he believes the facts usually

[Dachi]

At least is is better than todays mud slinging.

How many hours of CNN do you have to watch before you build a strong understanding of what exactly each candidates views are? Books take too long to publish to contain elections news, and the web is generally more accessible than good magazines. The web is a great place to bring information together.

What are the actual numbers involved in some of these false promises and how practical are they?

Exactly how much money and on what does the government (state and federal) spend money?

Which states cost the least to live or run a business in?

How much money do some politicians make, and what are they wasting it on?

Are there any ideas to restructure the current bloated system into something leaner and cheaper? Suggestions could be open to comment and revision. Let universities and communities work together to think of practical ways to save money and maybe a few politicians will listen.

Government bids are won all the time by the only bidder because nobody else even knew the contracts were up for bid. Maybe the government needs a more accessible system to allow companies that don't charge $5 per lug nut a chance to bid.

The internet has the potential to be a great source of information median for pooling research. It is just a matter of putting together the proper backend. A task like this would be a good publicity stunt for a company that sells scalable project coordination technologies.

[Afrimerican]

AFRIMERICAN FUTURE ERODING

The future of afrimericans in the U.S. in on a steady downhill spiral, not one Afrimerican owned T.V. station, or satelite, allthe media images are comedic, or sports related, in the movies everyone knows the Afrimerican is going to die first, the encroachment of institutionalized racism to exclude Afrimericans from enjoying one-tenth of the wealth they created and was robbed of for this country is insulting and whites who know all the facts and data to support this claim and who agree, remain silent because the climate of exclusionary racism benefits them.who has the courage to take a stand; C.E.O.'s, Presidents,...,how bout you?