Online NewsHour:

How is the Internet affecting the way politicians run their campaigns?

PHIL NOBLE: The first effect has to do with the improved relationship between the campaign and voters.  There is increased opportunity for campaigns to communicate their ideas directly to voters, whether it is a mayoral race or a presidential race.  Campaigns have gone from billboards in the sky to interaction in cyberspace.

Besides being an online brochure for their campaign with bios and position papers, the use of e-mail has allowed candidates and voters to interact like never before.  The Internet is starting to change campaigns because it provides and easy, direct link between the voters and the politicians. Campaigns can recruit volunteers online and send e-mails to constituents advising them of upcoming events in their area, etc.

Another effect the interactive nature of the Internet has had on political campaigns is its use as a fundraising tool.  Voters can go directly to a candidate's site and donate to their campaign.  The use of online fundraising technology, such as the Instant OnlineFundraiser, has started to catch on in campaigns across the board.  Now, anyone can take contributions online, securely, without having to purchase any expensive hardware or software.

Online NewsHour:

How is the Internet affecting the way voters receive information about the issues?

PHIL NOBLE: Voters finally have access to unfiltered information on the issues through candidate sites and other sites like the California Voter Foundation and Project Vote-Smart.  These sites provide the voter with non-partisan information on the candidates, campaign finances, issues and political awareness. Online information sites, whether they're media or non-profit civic awareness groups, provide today's voter with more direct information than ever before.

Prior to the advent of the Internet in politics, voters did not have the ability to receive this information, so easily or readily, any time they want it.

Online NewsHour:

Considering Internet accessibility, is there a danger that disenfranchised voters will become more so?

PHIL NOBLE:Yes, particularly for the Democrats in the middle to short term.  Right now, people with the technology tend to be in the middle to upper income brackets.  Since a higher percentage of Democratic supporters are lower to middle income brackets, the technology is not as available to them as Republican supporters.

However, as the numbers of computers grow and the prices fall, we will see the computer when merged with TV becomes the true medium of political communication.  The ability for people to use the computer to connect with politicians gives them something the TV alone never had - interactive communication.

Online NewsHour:

How will the Internet be used in future campaigns?

PHIL NOBLE: The first and most obvious use will be fundraising.  Today, only nine percent of gubernatorial and 16 percent of U.S. Senate candidates currently have the ability to accept credit card donations online.  The current system used in most campaigns is a crude method for fundraising.  They do not have the ability to integrate the credit card authorization and deposits into the campaign's technological architecture.  Most campaigns simply write down the information from the Internet site and then use an old-fashioned paper system.  The new automated process, like the Instant OnlineFundraiser, takes full advantage of the Internet fundraising opportunities for political campaigns.

The second use of the political Internet will be developing the use of e-mail as an "organizing tool" among supporters.  Virtually everyone on the Internet has an e-mail list and campaigns should use their volunteers to network.  I call this "Working the CyberWard."  It's much like a traditional ward, virtually, but it is located in cyberspace.  Campaigns must start making more use of their cyber-volunteers for working these networks of CyberWards.

To this point, the use of e-mail has been widespread, but very rudimentary. It's future is the development of the tool as an extensive organizing mechanism.

Online NewsHour:

Are this year's elections the Internet's coming of age as a political tool? Why or why not?

PHIL NOBLE: I have predicted and still believe as the election is being conducted that we're going to see the first candidate who won or lost an election on the basis of the Internet. It's going to be some 32-year-old first-time candidate in a statehouse or city council race who unseats an old white guy who's been sitting there for 20 years and hasn't even heard of the Internet -- and he'll never see it coming.  Every newspaper in the country is going to do a story, and every politician in the country is going to say, 'I want to get me some of that.'

This is the first election year in which the Net can be considered a mass medium. The New York times reported that in California, 41 percent of likely voters used e-mail and that 67 percent used a computer regularly at home, work or school.

If you go back and look historically, every time there's a new medium, a political leader understands how to use it and essentially dominates their political age.  We're still waiting to see who's going to be the John Kennedy of the Internet.  And while we haven't found him or her yet, there are a number of candidates who have showed themselves to be very Net-savvy. They're the ones to watch this year.