Articles, essays, and talks of Rey Lugtu

(Published in the Business World under the "View from Taft" column, March 8, 2007) When Sen. Hillary Clinton announced her presidential campaign in January, her website immediately drew 150,000 new sign-ups – people registering their e-mail addresses with the site, the New York Post reported. Also, during the campaign launch, a web forum, which is like a cyber town hall meeting hosted by Hillary on Yahoo!, drew a near-record of 35,000 people. Interestingly, a large part of these Internet traffic forms related to the Clinton campaign has been from the 18-to-24-year-old group, and Hillary’s campaign office issued a statement that "could be good news, as the 2008 election will almost certainly be strongly influenced by the Web.” The role of the Internet as a vehicle for political campaign has been growing in importance over the past years, as Internet connectivity becomes affordable and more pervasive. In fact, a 2004 study by the Pew Internet and American Life Report shows