What I said while it was happening.
Anyone can describe a wave after it has passed. This page is a record of what I said about each one while it was still breaking - to reporters, on panels, and on the record with regulators - so you can check the pattern I describe against what I actually thought at the time. Some of it holds up well. Some of it is a reminder that the confident view in the middle of a transition is not always the right one. Both are useful to you, and I would rather you see both.
Most of these appearances predate the archived web. Where a live link exists, it is included. For the rest, the citation is the outlet, date, and headline, and I keep archive copies that are available on request.
The Internet wave, 1996-2000
Building the first presidential campaign website, then advising campaigns and policymakers as the medium found its footing.
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"Online Communication in the 1996 Campaign."
Panel with representatives of the Clinton, Dole, and Perot presidential campaigns and Senator John Kerry's campaign on how each used online media in the election.
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washingtonpost.com, August 3, 1998
on the Internet's effect on politics: "The Internet will magnify politics. It's going to make what's good about politics better, and what's bad about politics worse."
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The New York Times, November 15, 1999
on the 1997 Whitman campaign site and its email list: "We wanted to be our own news service."
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National Journal, January 29, 2000
on why campaigns lagged the medium's growth: "There are about five times as many people on the Internet as in 1996. You would expect campaigns to have five times as many people on their lists, and they don't even come close."
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co-signatory, as principal of Presage, Inc., of a joint public comment on Internet political speech (Notice of Inquiry 1999-24), alongside the Center for Democracy and Technology, the ACLU, and People For the American Way.
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The New York Times, February 12, 2000
on the McCain campaign's online fundraising: "This is not some newfangled technique for generating revenue. This is old-fashioned dialing for dollars."
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"Candidates and Young Adults in Campaign 2000."
Panel on candidate outreach to young voters, including television advertising, turnout, and Internet campaigns.
The platform shifts, 2006-2008
From the agency side, watching video, mobile, and user-generated content change what "local" and "reach" meant - before the tablet-and-phone transition I would later lead a national curriculum through.
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Washington Examiner, September 27, 2006
on YouTube and the 2006 midterms: "The definition of local, I think, has changed because of this."
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Kansas City Star, January 10, 2007
on Apple TV and content distribution: "If you've got a good idea, you no longer have to figure out how you're going to get carriage on Comcast or Time Warner. That day is over."
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The Star-Ledger, March 27, 2007
on anonymous political ads on YouTube, credited with having predicted the trend the previous fall: "This is clearly the kind of thing you can expect to see more of."
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DMNews, May 26, 2008
"Should cell ads cost more than Web ads?"
Point/counterpoint feature. Argued that mobile advertising was not yet ready to command premium rates, comparing mobile Internet penetration to 1995 levels.
The cloud and remote-work shift, 2020-2021
Running an 850-person remote instructional operation when demand doubled overnight.
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"Center for Talented Youth enrollment skyrockets after school closures."
"The pandemic brought parents directly in view of whether or not their child was being adequately challenged in school. Some students would be done with all of their school-assigned work by noon, so parents quickly came to CTY for something additional."
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"Enrollment Surge! Surviving and Thriving in COVID-19."
Co-presented with L. Kasim: how CTY managed a 100% surge in program demand while maintaining quality and satisfaction.
Looking back at the first wave
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"Dole-Kemp Campaign Site Immortalizes '90s Internet Tech."
A twentieth-anniversary interview with Rachel Martin about building the 1996 site and what the early web was like to work in. Broadcast nationally.
The current wave
Commentary on AI, education, and leadership through the current transition runs at The Participant Observer, my Substack newsletter.
Recognition
Politics Online Best Campaign Site of 1997 (the Whitman re-election site, produced under my direction) · BtoB Magazine Best Award, 2007 (AIA "How Design Works" campaign, Carton Donofrio Partners) · USDLA Award and Eddie Award for K-12 online curriculum, earned by teams I helped lead at Connections Academy.
For media inquiries
I am available for comment on structural technology change in organizations, AI adoption in education and professional services, and the history of the political Internet.
Archive copies of pre-web press are available on request.