CDT VTW "aces" launch "bold" new Net-firm, by Brock Meeks

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

---

http://www.msnbc.com/news/129054.asp

Noted Net lobbyists form for-profit firm Two non-profit cyberspace
advocates now look to market Internet strategies

By Brock Meeks

WASHINGTON -- This is a story of defection. Two well-known
voices on cyberspace advocacy issues Jonah Seiger of the Center for
Democracy and Technology and Shabbir Safdar of Voters
Telecommunication Watch said Tuesday they're forming a
company specializing in "Internet campaign strategies."
Spin doctors for fun and profit. And along they way, they hope to
help make the Internet safe for Democracy.

[...]

The move is a dramatic shift for the two. In four years they have
been at the forefront of the most contentious issues in cyberspace.
They've created and honed their Internet strategies in the
bare-knuckle world of Washington politics with incessant digital
lobbying. No more. "We aren't going to be walking
around the halls of Congress lobbying on behalf of anybody,"
Seiger said.

IS ANYBODY HERE? The move is bold, even brash. Seiger and Safdar are
banking that the Internet is, first, a viable medium for "moving an issue"
as they call it and, second, that companies or organizations are going to
be willing to pony up money to mount an Internet campaign. On second
thought, maybe this is simply blind faith. 

If this defection is born of blind faith in a nascent medium, then
Seiger and Safdar are true disciples. Seizer's own currency
inside the Center for Democracy and Technology has been on a steady
rise; he routinely is quoted on cyberspace issues. Now he's
chucked all that for a start-up that depends on a medium that
hasn't yet proven it can sustain a commercially viable site.

[...]

Whether or not the sound bite plays at the bank and with a host of
potential clients, is another matter altogether. If Mindshare is
going to be successful, it'll have to have an ace up its
digital sleeve. It doesn't. It has two: Seiger and Safdar.

###