Minnesota's senatorial and gubernatorial candidates agree to participate in electronic debates.
The Minnesota Electronic Democracy Project proudly presents the first ever on-line debate for U.S. Senate and Governor of Minnesota.
These debates are sponsored by The League of Women Voters, the Minnesota Regional Network, and the Twin Cities Free-Net. We welcome you to this public service and invite you to visit the Minnesota E-Democracy archive, which contains candidate position papers, press releases, voters guides, and much more.
The gubernatorial debate will take place from October 24 to October 28. Participants in the debate will include Arne Carlson, Jon Hillson, John Marty, Eric Olson and Will Shetterly.
The Senate debate will take place from October 31 to November 4. Participants in the debate will include Dean Barkley, Rod Grams, Marea Himelgrin, and Ann Wynia.
The mailing list MN-DEBATE is an open subscription list which will not accept commentary from the general public. I, as moderator, will only forward messages from the Minnesota gubernatorial and senatorial candidates participating in the debates. I will also, from time to time, send administrative information, e.g. introductions to the candidates, debate questions, etc.
The Twin Cities Free-Net is maintaining an archive of all mail messages sent to the MN-POLITICS and MN-DEBATE mailing lists. To retrieve messages stored in those archives, select one of the following links:
With the help of such organizations as the Twin Cities Free-Net, MRNet, and the Minneapolis Telecommunications Network, as well as the participation of hundreds of citizens across the country, the Minnesota E-Democracy Project has achieved astonishing results. In founding Minnesota E-Democracy only a few months ago, Steven Clift, has moved forward his and others vision for invigorating the democratic process through the use of the computer mediated communications.
The combination of state-level on-line campaign information and substantive political discussion is unparalleled anywhere in the country, if not the world. The E-Democracy Project has created a space on-line for the distribution of candidate position papers, and other information pertaining to the 1994 election season in Minnesota. The project has also created an on-line discussion forum, a proto-type for the "electronic town-hall", if you will.
It is this last element of the E-Democracy Project that captured the attention of Scott Aikens, a Doctoral candidate at the University of Cambridge in England, studying the relationship between the new medium of communication and traditional media as these impact upon the democratic process. Mr. Aikens, who has worked in research at NBC News and at the Museum of Television & Radio in New York City, came to Minneapolis to observe and participate in this pioneer effort to improve upon the American democratic tradition.
In tracking the project, and discussing how computer mediated communications would come to reshape the American political landscape, Mr. Clift and Mr. Aikens agreed that an on-line candidates debate would make the fullest use of the interactive nature of the medium and have the most profound affect upon American society.
They concluded that an on-line debate could be structured to give the candidates a fully protected, non-partisan platform within which to conduct a substantive discussion of the issues. Simultaneously, a location (if you regard cyberspace as a place) already existed that would allow the citizenry an unprecedented degree of input into the debate and opportunity to participate, contributing their own ideas in an appropriate but separate forum.
Each debate will consist of three questions previously decided upon by the participants in cyberspace and approved by appropriate committees. These questions will be spread over a five day period. The candidates will be required to respond to each question and to rebut the other candidates original response to each question. The candidate must be involved with the formulation of the response and rebuttal. They are not, however, required to type or appear on-line in real time. This is the extent of the commitment required of the candidate. The debate is designed to minimize the time commitment for the candidate while maximizing the opportunity for substantive dialogue within the community. Further, given the fact that this will be the first official debate in cyberspace, we believe there will be a high amount of local, national and international media coverage.
This debate is an exciting opportunity for all concerned to participate in an unavoidable societal transformation. All of us involved with the E-Democracy Project are awed at this opportunity to play a role in a larger process which, if conducted competently, will result in the betterment of the democratic process for all concerned.
It is a matter of great importance to us that the National Information Infrastructure be constructed competently, so that its latent potential may be realized. It is our feeling that this responsibility, in part, rests on the young, on those who understand the new technology best.
This is the spirit in which the E-Debates have been conceived.
Enjoy the debates.
Scott Aikens
MN E-Democracy Project
E-Debates coordinator