Page 129 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

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Political Organizations
this new age, information functions would stand visibly on the stage of
politics.
By 1999, it was clear that increasing information abundance was influ-
encing the market for lobbying and political mobilization. Like the mar-
ket for retail goods, this one featured competition between established
lobbying organizations and new start-ups, a strong reliance on venture
capitalists, and rapid churn as some business models failed and others
thrived and as businesses recombined in mergers and consolidations.
At the time of McCurry’s change of venue, the market for new politi-
cal advocacy services already had highly visible players: PoliticsOnline,
Mindshare, the Juno Advocacy Network (a subscriber-based general
Internetservicesproviderwithapoliticalorganizingcapacity),anda firm
called e-advocates. Old-media consultants including Capitol Advantage
and Issue Dynamics were also offering products in the new arena.
Until the late 1990s, instances of political organizations or groups em-
ploying new information infrastructure to accomplish political tasks – let
alone hiring consultants to do it for them – remained novel enough to
warrant mention whenever they occurred. Some of the earliest exam-
ples reported in the academic literature date to the early 1990s, when
political activists and organizers began using new means of communica-
tion to organize collective action. One of the first was an Internet-based
protest in 1990 by about 30,000 people, which was directed at a private
firm, Lotus Development Corporation. A small organization, Computer
Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR), initiated the effort out of
concerns that a forthcoming product, Lotus Market Place, would facili-
tate violations of consumers’ privacy. CPSR’s call to protest against Lotus
took a theoretically important course. As participants communicated
with one another on line, they rapidly generated sympathizers outside
the group’s own membership. Without any noteworthy expenditures of
resources or a centrally coordinated media campaign, a small, insular
group had been transformed into a large, self-organized, and potentially
threatening group with prominent postbureaucratic features. Flooded
with messages, Lotus withdrew its product. 6
A similar effort in 1993 involved a successful protest directed at the
Clinton administration over the proposed “Clipper Chip” policy, which
would have created a ready technological means for law enforcement
officials to intercept computer-based messages. A coalition of small

6
Laura Gurak, Persuasion and Privacy in Cyberspace: The Online Protests over Lotus
Marketplace and the Clipper Chip (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997).
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