CDT VTW "aces" launch "bold" new Net-firm, by Brock Meeks

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http://www.msnbc.com/news/129054.asp

Noted Net lobbyists form for-profit firm Two non-profit cyberspace
advocates now look to market Internet strategies

By Brock Meeks

WASHINGTON -- This is a story of defection. Two well-known
voices on cyberspace advocacy issues Jonah Seiger of the Center for
Democracy and Technology and Shabbir Safdar of Voters
Telecommunication Watch said Tuesday they're forming a
company specializing in "Internet campaign strategies."
Spin doctors for fun and profit. And along they way, they hope to
help make the Internet safe for Democracy.

[...]

The move is a dramatic shift for the two. In four years they have
been at the forefront of the most contentious issues in cyberspace.
They've created and honed their Internet strategies in the
bare-knuckle world of Washington politics with incessant digital
lobbying. No more. "We aren't going to be walking
around the halls of Congress lobbying on behalf of anybody,"
Seiger said.

IS ANYBODY HERE? The move is bold, even brash. Seiger and Safdar are
banking that the Internet is, first, a viable medium for "moving an issue"
as they call it and, second, that companies or organizations are going to
be willing to pony up money to mount an Internet campaign. On second
thought, maybe this is simply blind faith. 

If this defection is born of blind faith in a nascent medium, then
Seiger and Safdar are true disciples. Seizer's own currency
inside the Center for Democracy and Technology has been on a steady
rise; he routinely is quoted on cyberspace issues. Now he's
chucked all that for a start-up that depends on a medium that
hasn't yet proven it can sustain a commercially viable site.

[...]

Whether or not the sound bite plays at the bank and with a host of
potential clients, is another matter altogether. If Mindshare is
going to be successful, it'll have to have an ace up its
digital sleeve. It doesn't. It has two: Seiger and Safdar.

###

On Fri, 12 Dec 1997, Declan McCullagh wrote:

> ---
> 
> http://www.msnbc.com/news/129054.asp
> 
> Noted Net lobbyists form for-profit firm Two non-profit cyberspace
> advocates now look to market Internet strategies
> 
> By Brock Meeks
> 
> WASHINGTON -- This is a story of defection. Two well-known
> voices on cyberspace advocacy issues Jonah Seiger of the Center for
> Democracy and Technology and Shabbir Safdar of Voters
> Telecommunication Watch said Tuesday they're forming a
> company specializing in "Internet campaign strategies."
> Spin doctors for fun and profit. And along they way, they hope to
> help make the Internet safe for Democracy.

Maybe I'm dumb as a post (no pun intended), or maybe I'm just not up to 
speed on these advocacy issues, but - where's the defection?  Why is 
starting a company, or the particular company in question considered a 
defection?


> The move is a dramatic shift for the two. In four years they have
> been at the forefront of the most contentious issues in cyberspace.
> They've created and honed their Internet strategies in the
> bare-knuckle world of Washington politics with incessant digital
> lobbying. No more. "We aren't going to be walking
> around the halls of Congress lobbying on behalf of anybody,"
> Seiger said.

What's so dramatic about it?


> Seizer's own currency
> inside the Center for Democracy and Technology has been on a steady
> rise; he routinely is quoted on cyberspace issues. Now he's
> chucked all that for a start-up that depends on a medium that
> hasn't yet proven it can sustain a commercially viable site.

Is this a claim that nobody has made any significant money through the 
internet?

______________________________________________________________________
Jon Galt
e-mail:  jongalt@pinn.net
website:  http://www.pinn.net/~jongalt/
PGP public key available on my website.
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
______________________________________________________________________

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

>http://www.msnbc.com/news/129054.asp
>
>Noted Net lobbyists form for-profit firm Two non-profit cyberspace
>advocates now look to market Internet strategies
>
>By Brock Meeks
>
>WASHINGTON -- This is a story of defection. Two well-known
>voices on cyberspace advocacy issues Jonah Seiger of the Center for
>Democracy and Technology and Shabbir Safdar of Voters
>Telecommunication Watch said Tuesday they're forming a
>company specializing in "Internet campaign strategies."

MarketEarth enfolds another two helpless victims in its coils.  Beware.  You 
may be next...

DCF
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