A small milestone slipped by unnoticed a week or two back: the seven-year anniversary of the launch of Epolitics.com. Wow! In that long-ago summer of 2006, George W. Bush was President, the Republicans controlled Congress, YouTube was a year old, “social networking” meant MySpace, and Barack Obama was a rookie U.S. Senator who gave a good speech. The earliest posts would still feel right at home on the site’s front page today: we predicted the power of political microtargeting, explored a handy paradigm for preparing information for Congress, and caught up on the first e.politics Quick Hits.
Seven years, 1685 articles and three e-books later, internet politics isn’t a curiosity anymore: it’s the hottest field in the political world. As it’s grown, Epolitics.com has covered the good and the bad, exposing good tools and tactics and fostering fresh voices (thank you, guest authors!). Old farts like me have no monopoly on talent or skill, and nowadays, wave upon wave of fresh digital activists and advocates join the ranks of internet political practitioners every day. While they learn their craft, every one of them will need to know what’s happening — and that’s why Epolitics.com exists.
With my new consulting biz in full swing, the site occasionally has to take a back seat like it did last week (one whole article!). But I won’t leave it for long — writing this thing has taught me too much (and is too damn much fun) to let it slip. Thank you for coming along for the ride! Without you, I’d have given up long ago, and that would have sucked. By the way, when was the last time you wrote a guest piece? I’d love to see what you have to say, and so would our peers…and as long as that stays true, Epolitics.com will stay relevant. In the meantime, it’s a celebration!
– cpd