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YouTube? It's So Yesterday
"Mobile political affinity" software would measure local political demographics. Subscribers would continually and anonymously transmit their political preferences. That's how you would know that 61 percent of the people in your cafe disapprove of the war in Iraq. More sophisticated software would let you find out whether you are in a gay-friendly area, or a conservative Christian area -- a virtual political and cultural weather map.
Political affinity software would take the guesswork out of finding your political community. And, of course, parties and politicians would become interested in the possibilities for even more sophisticated ways to redraw districts. The slogan: "If only I'd figured out e-gerrymandering when I was younger, I'd still be a congressman today."
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If you're a stickler for dignity in politics, the future we've described may not be for you. But boring old blogs, knocking on doors and, yes, campaign speeches aren't going away, either. So the choice will be up to the voters: Do you prefer to watch Hillary's televised debate with Barack, or their online duel with giant battleaxes?
Zephyr Teachout was director of Internet organizing for Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign. Tim Wu is a professor at Columbia Law School and coauthor of "Who Controls the Internet?" (Oxford University Press).
