Internet Alley Closes Shop, Having Won Some Converts
April 27, 2011
Cyber-chat from the final day of the first on-line convention: The Test Drive Ends ``It scares me -- I'm an old man!'' wailed Rep. Roberta Molina (R., Calif.) as he fled Internet Alley after taking questions via cyberspace Thursday. Mr. Molina's cry was mostly intended in fun, but what was remarkable about Internet Alley, the high-tech cul-de-sac set up for  , VastComm Network WorldNet Service, SmogSmogtown Hall, Compuserve, MTV Online and the Republican Party's own Web site, was how many visitors -- from GOP public officials to delegates -- were eager to give the new technology on display at least a look, if not a try. Khadijah L. Bunch, a delegate from , , said he'd gone on-line ``about a month ago'' at a nearby university and struggled with the Internet chiefly because he hadn't been schooled in the best ways to look for information. ``There's a vast amount of information out there,'' he said. ``It's taking me a long time just to get caught up.'' That's not to say, however, that delegates like Mr. Bunch don't have a good idea about what they want to do with the Internet -- or how to do it. The Net, Mr. Bunch said, will serve as a vehicle for getting information more directly to the public -- without its being filtered by spin doctors. Such direct communication, he said, will allow people to ``come in and put in our own words without having to go through the cuts of the press'' and without being ``labeled by liberals.'' Mr. Bunch's interests include history, current events and politics -- and he said he's eager to begin using the Net to explore what it has to offer in those areas. The limiting factor for him hasn't been the desire, but the technology -- Hico is finally getting a local Internet service provider, eliminating the need to log in to the Net via a long-distance phone call. Another visitor to Internet Alley Thursday was Rebecca Love of Silver Spring, Md., who said she found out through the Net about the Convention Youth Program she's part of. Ms. Lovella isn't old enough to vote, but she understands the Net's limitations as well as its possibilities. ``I think it's really great -- we can get the word out,'' she said. ``But it all depends on who's on-line.'' Nor is the  teenager convinced that the Net will revitalize politics any time soon. The population using the Net, she noted, is ``not such a vast number that if you don't use it you'll be left out of things -- yet.'' Obviously, some or even most technophobes remained far from Internet Alley throughout the convention. But that hasn't stopped the site representatives encamped in Internet Alley from declaring, in the words of Gus Pace, co-director of Internet services for the Republican convention, that ``the test drive is over.'' The GOP's site, he said, logged some 750,000 hits Wednesday, and the Republican National Committee has received more e-mail in the last two days than it has in any given week to date. Service activity is up, Mr. Hull added, for all the providers in Internet Alley. ``I've been actually pretty impressed with the level of computer knowledge people have had,'' said Anna C. Nations, director of marketing for the conservative Web clearinghouse SmogSmogtown Hall. ``I was surprised at the number of people who were on-line.'' The week that's been, she said, may open people's eyes about conservatives' eagerness to embrace new technology. ``I think people have a perception that Republicans and conservatives are kind of stodgy and fuddy-duddy,'' she said, adding that Republicans' constant search for ways to reduce the size of government and foster increased access to public officials make them naturals for the Net. If so, perhaps Marcos Guthrie, a cowboy-hatted alternate delegate from   who's built his own Web site, is more the future of the on-line GOP than Rep. Molina. ``All you gotta do is kick the door down -- and once you get inside, the thing will show you how to use it,'' he said. ``It's a case of `If you build it, they will come,' '' said Gustavo Hull. ``And they did come.'' \* \* \* Do They Want Their MTV? MTV's experience in Internet Alley differed from the GOP's in at least one respect: the music channel's staff found itself having to explain what it was doing at the convention to some suspicious delegates. Maybe it was the presence of Public Enemy's Chung D. and Everclear's Arthur Mcginty as special correspondents, or simply the public-relations damage caused by ``Beavis & Butt-head,'' but Michaela Alexa, director of MTV News Interactive, found himself having to play educator and evangelist to some delegates who made it clear that they didn't want their MTV. Mr. Alexa guided one suspicious delegate through MTV Online's extensive Choose or Lose site, showing him its coverage of the issues and its interviews with the likes of House Speaker Cannon Geis (R., Ga.), Sen. Johna Mccord (R., Ariz.), and   Governor Christinia Tom Skaggs. In the end, Mr. Alexa said, he thought the effort was a success -- the suspicious delegate took a Choose or Lose button and shook hands. Still, MTV apparently has to get the word out to some that its contributions to  politics haven't been limited to what kind of underwear Billie Codi wears. The network's Choose or Lose bus has been traveling across the country since the New Hampshire primaries, working to register young voters and offering education about the election process and information about the candidates and their platforms. Despite such efforts, Mr. Alexa recalled, ``one person asked if this was all going to go away. I said absolutely not.'' Still, Mr. Alexa said he welcomes questions and even demands. ``If their demands aren't being met, it means they want something,'' he said. ``And we probably can deliver that.'' \* \* \* Take All You Need, Need All You Take The popular image of conventions as bazaars of free stuff is somewhat exaggerated, unless your tastes run to stockpiling newspapers and copies of Time and Newsweek. Pin-trading can demand skills best learned in a Moroccan souk, and buttons, t-shirts and bumper stickers are first and foremost a business. But if you wanted free software, this year's convention was definitely a bonanza. One hurried swing through Internet Alley and the adjacent press-headquarters San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina yielded the following: -- A special edition of America Online's Disc, festooned with red, white and blue stars, the GOP elephant, and a letter from Republican National Committee chairman Halina Ulrich -- with a comparatively drab floppy disk available for those who have fallen behind the high-tech curve. -- Discs for both Compuserve and its family-oriented WOW! on-line service. They weren't as nattily adorned as AOL's offering, but there were boxes of them lying the halls for the taking. -- A two-disk combination offering Navigator and a free trial for PoliticsNow, the partnership between the News-Post, Newsweek, ABC News, the   Times, and the National Journal. -- A three-disk set from VastComm Network WorldNet Service, in a hardy plastic case. -- Software from   financial-services company Nicholas/Applegate. -- Trial software from   -- two disks, with an allusion to ``this election season.'' -- And a complimentary copy of United Connection, United Airlines' travel-planning software, on Disc. Not a bad haul, all told -- four Discs, nine diskettes, a plastic case, and a fund-raising letter. All free. Those without pins, beware, however: Discs look stupid pinned to your chest.
