Two related memes I hear too often: "If only we get us some internets our campaign will be victorious," and "That campaign had internets and lost and so obviously internets don't work."

It's not that simple.

I got a lot of responses to my last column about using the web in local politics. The downtown Rotary asked if I'd come speak about what I somewhat grandly called "the voice of the people," and I think I heard from every neighborhood group opposing rezoning around here. This stuff may be of fairly narrow interest, but it's very interesting to those people who do follow it.

Anyway, it seemed like a useful idea to publish a few observations on the subject of web campaigning, so I wrote a newspaper column about it, which you can read below the jump.

A reality check on web politics

by Edward Cone
News & Record
2-03-08

I got a lot of responses to a recent column about the successful fight to expand the Haw River State Park, in which I looked at the implications of that victory for a greener Guilford County and the use of the Internet to empower volunteer groups as they push back against developers. At least one neighborhood coalition was inspired to create a blog of its own, to publicize and coordinate its fight to modify plans for a big apartment project on Friendly Avenue.

So this seems like a good time for a reality check on the uses of the Internet in politics. Online tools are powerful, and they are making a difference at every level of public life, but you can't just throw together a Web site and win. There are no silver bullets. Here are some observations derived from several years of watching online politics evolve:

* The Net is not about the Net. It sounds like a Zen koan, but it's the core strategic reality of online politics. "I'm obsessed with offline," said Zephyr Teachout, then Howard Dean's director of Internet organizing and now a visiting professor at Duke law school, when I interviewed her back in 2003. As my subsequent case study of the Dean campaign put it, "Online tools are a way to get people to act -- to meet in the physical world, to put up flyers and posters, write letters and checks, speak to other people face to face. And ultimately, to get out and vote."

* The ground game matters. A corollary to the koan, meaning that it's what you do with that real-world energy that matters. The Haw River Park effort was built on top of an existing organization, the Guilford Open Space Committee, and used a smart mix of phone calls, yard signs and lawyers to help make its case to the public and to elected officials. Online messaging and information are critical for getting people together and keeping them informed -- and for outlasting the delaying tactics of developers -- but there's no substitute for tactical maneuvering. The Friendly Avenue group's effort to have Councilman Robbie Perkins recuse himself from the upcoming rezoning vote may prove more important to its success than any Web-bred activity.

* The Net won't sell a bad product. The Haw River Park was widely popular, and the plan for a gated community that it supplanted was not; the Net didn't create that reality, it leveraged it. The Net galvanized support around Dean's anti-war message, but it couldn't overcome his limitations as a candidate. John Edwards used the Web well in the 2008 campaign, but it didn't make him a contender in a race dominated by the star power of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. For that matter, think back to the dot-com bubble: The Web couldn't sell dog food, either.

* The Net is a lever that moves other media. Publishing your own narrative is important, and simple tools like YouTube video can give your message plenty of punch, but the mass media is critical to shaping public opinion. Reporters are always looking for a good story, and providing them with an updatable source that tells the story the way you want it told is a powerful thing. The Net influences the influencers. The neighborhood group that shot down a Walgreens at the corner of Cornwallis and Lawndale was on television and in the daily paper soon after launching its blog, and the Friendly Avenue group is getting some big-media traction, too.

* Net campaigns still need a lot of work. Things that may not be possible in the coming election, like linking from national campaigns to the big voter databases maintained by the state parties, will be commonplace in years to come. There is a lot of opportunity for innovation. Technologies like mobile phones and micro-messaging services have yet to be harnessed fully by the pros, but maybe a local group can help crack the code.

* You can't win if you don't play. Kay Hagan has a big hill to climb in her late-launching campaign for the Senate seat occupied by Liddy Dole. So far, Hagan's online effort has been weak. She's amassed hundreds of friends on Facebook but done little to create a 100-county campaign or draw the national attention she needs. Dole has done even less online. It's only February, but that sets up a final point: You can't build these things overnight and expect them to work.

© News & Record 2008

Edward Cone (www.edcone.com, [email protected]) writes a column for the News & Record most Sundays.