Peer-to-Peer Politics 2008 - ' Forecasting with Broadband '

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Forecasting with Broadband

For starters, as 2008 approaches, broadband communications will be taking root.

Jupiter Research forecasts that by 2008, 46 million households -- representing half of online households and 40 percent of all U.S. households--will connect via high-speed technologies.

That means an upstart candidate will have better infrastructure to pitch multimedia messages about issues and with any luck get it recirculated on a "peer-to-peer" copying service such as Kazaa. The Internet could act as a television network that reaches all 50 states all the time.

"You could create a campaign that reached every computer-literate voter,'' says Cuban. "And it wouldn't be hard."

Demographics also support the notion that Internet technologies could support a serious independent candidacy.

For starters, 145 million eligible voters are already online, according to Jupiter Research.

That's two-thirds of the U.S. Census Bureau's calculation that 217.8 million Americans are eligibile to vote this year.

And then there's youth.

By 2008, young adults 18-34 online will number 50.1 million. This pool of potential voters, volunteers and activists grew up on the personal computers. Those demographics indicate that a Web-based candidacy could be mounted in 2012, if not 2008.

"It could take a couple of cycles, but it'll happen," says Hughes.

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