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

[Jon Galt <jongalt@pinn.net>]

On Fri, 12 Dec 1997, Declan McCullagh wrote:

> ---
> 
> 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.

Maybe I'm dumb as a post (no pun intended), or maybe I'm just not up to 
speed on these advocacy issues, but - where's the defection?  Why is 
starting a company, or the particular company in question considered a 
defection?


> 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.

What's so dramatic about it?


> 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.

Is this a claim that nobody has made any significant money through the 
internet?

______________________________________________________________________
Jon Galt
e-mail:  jongalt@pinn.net
website:  http://www.pinn.net/~jongalt/
PGP public key available on my website.
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
______________________________________________________________________