Whistlestops in cyberspace

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Others are more optimistic. Selnow, whose next book is about Internet campaigning, believes that the future of the Net will be the ability to target the audience. Future campaigns will "issue-model," or monitor a potential voter's movement through a site and analyze patterns to anticipate where that person will go.

This means that the site will be able to identify voters and tailor its content to their interests, presenting the information in ways that they find accessible--or, as others might say more cynically, giving them what they want to hear. Sites such as the Dole-Kemp page already use issue-modeling techniques to customize information for repeat visitors.

Ross believes that convenience may be the reason that voters turn to the campaign information online. Web sites may not produce any online epiphanies, but they do give Netizens a chance to get involved without some of the obstacles of the physical world. Candidates can stuff email boxes with flyers and petitions just as they send out in the real-world mail. The only difference is it's free and all done with the click of a button.

Volunteers can also sign up to volunteer through Web sites. The Dole campaign, for example, has signed up more than 6,000 people to volunteer for the campaign since launching its site a year ago. Users can also go to Campaign 96, a site built as a public service by USWeb, which links to all the state and national candidate sites, or even register to vote online at places like NetVote '96, which is also sponsored by MTV's well-known Rock the Vote site.

"We're still finding out what works and what doesn't," a Dole aide said, "but grass-roots organization may turn out to be the most important thing the Web can offer."

Perhaps most important, Ross said, is the money. "The Web will really become big for politics when candidates can get donations over the Net," he said, pointing out that right now it is a hassle for potential donors to give amounts as small as $25. "The Net will fill a gap. The day that people begin to donate money because they can give what they want, when they want, with just the click of a button, candidates will really begin to take campaign Web pages seriously."

And, as with all things online, the future is never far away.