The digital citizen and his digital vote

In the mid-'90s, Wired magazine commissioned a survey of the people spending the most time on the Internet. As the nation was just beginning to wake up to this new toy, the magazine's editors wanted to know who, exactly, was leading the charge to the wired world. The report found:

[T]hey're knowledgeable, tolerant, civic-minded, and radically committed to
change. Profoundly optimistic about the future, they're convinced that
technology is a force for good and that our free-market economy functions as a powerful engine of progress. But among the survey's many powerful findings, one in particular caught me by surprise: where I had described them as deeply estranged from mainstream politics, the poll revealed that they are actually highly participatory and view our existing political system positively, even patriotically.

The survey was among the first to reveal what many of us take for granted now (or what some of use are just beginning to realize, a little behind the curve)--that those who can afford the luxury of spending free time and money on surfing the Web (and in particular visiting blogs daily) are highly involved already. Indeed, they are not really the sort who need to be persuaded to vote, and they are especially not the sort who can be persuaded to vote for a particular candidate.

This is all leading up to a post about why I don't think the Internet can be used to persuade undecided voters, which you'll find in a few days, for those of you who care to come back.