Information Technology and World Politics

Candidate Website Evaluation

March 6^th, 2008

I chose Ron Paul's and Ralph Nader's websites because both candidates are somewhat radical and will only take a small percentage of the vote compared to the frontrunners. Therefore, this critque is aimed towards focusing on how these smaller candidates' websites aid them in competing with the other candidates- how their websites are alike in that respect, and how they differ. In doing this I will provide a broad summary of both Paul's and Nader's official campaign websites, and conclude with an analysis of how the websites really help their campaigns.

Upon first visiting Ron Paul's and Ralph Nader's websites, one notices that both have striking homepages. Nader's features an introduction page where one is prompted to enter an email and contribute money, with an image of lightning and the slogan 'Which side are you on?', immediately letting the viewer know that this is a competition and hinting that Nader's side is the side that they should want to be on. Meanwhile, Ron Paul's homepage, with it's slogan 'Hope for America', is all about immediate access to many different kinds of media, combined with a just as immediate press to volunteer in various ways.

After going past Nader's introduction page and to his index, one can start to compare the two sites further. Nader's homepage featured links to Myspace.com, facebook, flikr, and youtube, but Paul's homepage featured a link at the very top of the page to youtube, and then youtube again at the bottom, along with facebook, myspace, flikr, justin.tv, stumpleupon, meetup, digg, twitter, linkedin, and amazingly, the iPhone network. Perhaps that's only to be expected when one of Ron Paul's main slogans on the street is: 'Have you googled Ron Paul yet?'

By the way, when one googles 'Ron Paul', the first thing that appears are several Google news articles, followed by his official presidential campaign website, and then followed by his Wikipedia article. Listed underneath his official presidential campaign website, there are several links to sites within it, including one that directs the user to a video of Ron Paul on the popular show 'The Colbert Report'. It is a clever way of directing Internet surfers to his official homepage, which is chock full of interesting things for them to look at and, more importantly, interact with.

Back to the candidate's homepages, Ron Paul's has quite a bit more to offer than Nader's. Although Nader's homepage features several embedded youtube videos, Ron Paul's shows a section devoted to youtube at the very top, in a section that users can scroll through to have easy access to a wide variety of features, including a feature showing Paul's total donations received this quarter, updated in real time, a feature showing Paul's standing in precincts around the US, portrayed on a map, with the names of his volunteers popping up and a link to sign up to volunteer right there, a small feature entitled 'Who is Ron Paul?' that shows a small biography with a link to read more about him, plus four more features, and beneath all those, a link to Ron Paul's online store. It is very impressive.

Moving on towards the candidate's blogs, Ralph Nader's was technically located on his homepage, but I had to click 'Continue Reading' to see more than a few lines, while Ron Paul's was a short mouse click away, under a link entitled 'The Daily Dose' that was embellished with a stethoscope, humorously referring to Paul's medical background. Ron Paul's blog also features easily accessible archive links, something that Nader's blog does not enjoy. Also, the main page of Paul's blog prominently includes a link that allows the reader to subscribe to an RSS feed of new posts on the site. Nader's blog has an RSS feed feature, but it is almost hidden at the bottom of his posts in small print.

After perusing the blogs, it seems a good idea to examine both candidate's media homepages. Ron Paul's site's main menu at the top featured a drop down menu that gave the user a choice between looking at news media of various kinds or video media of several more distinctions. Also just in the drop down menu there were links to Ron Paul's justin.tv channel and his youtube channel. This made selecting exactly which media to view and in what format extremely easy. Nader's website failed to make the process of looking for media anything like Paul's. Clicking the 'Media' link on the top menu in Nader's site brought the user to a page devoted mostly to press articles, with some pictures but absolutely no video media. In fact, the only place in the entire site where video media was available were the embedded youtube videos on the homepage. It was almost strange.

Both candidates have websites for myriad reasons, most of which probably overlap- but how well does each website achieve it's goals? From the above summary, one can conclude that Ralph Nader's website, while not doing that bad a job of presenting him as a candidate, pales in comparison to Ron Paul's website in all of it's multimedia glory. Nader's site is satisfactory, a perfectly respectable page- but Paul's takes it further, pushing the boundaries- just like the candidate himself is known to do.

So what does all of this mean for Ron Paul's and Ralph Nader's campaigns? Are the websites a good investment? In Ron Paul's case, that's a resounding 'yes!'. It was Paul's website that allowed him to 'moneybomb' so remarkably on several different days, most notably raising six million dollars in one day, setting a record for most funds raised in a day. If that isn't paying off, what is? In that respect, Nader's website so far has failed to live up to Ron Paul's standard, but perhaps, with time, and user input, it will improve. In either case, the candidates' websites enable them to promote themselves just as effectively online as the leaders in the race, something that previously was impossible. Just how much they have taken advantage of that opportunity, though, as one can see, varies greatly. For Ron Paul, the Republican primary may not go as well as he would like, but his campaign website is a real winner.

youth.gc.ca

eGovernment website evaluation

The website I chose to evaluate is www.youth.gc.ca . I chose it because I was interested in the criticism of the Canadian government websites, and also because youth.gc.ca has a unique twist- it is aimed at youth aged 15-30. Because of the emphasis on youth, the founders (youth themselves) have focused on creating increasingly sophisticated content for citizens to use. Also, because the emphasis is on youth and not a specific government function, there are myriad opportunities for separate departments of government to collaborate on youth.gc.ca, which is exactly what has been done. The website claims that 18 federal partners collaborated to create the content. Another noteworthy feature of the site is its use of forums to engage the user and allow them to provide feedback regarding government programs and the website itself. These many features are user-friendly, making www.youth.gc.ca a great resource for young Canadians.

www.youth.gc.ca operates at the transactional presence level of eGovernment, Stage IV. It clearly demonstrates C2G and G2C interaction. In particular, the G2C aspect is decidedly clear. Menus and a handy search tool provide instant access to hundreds of government documents, from both many different government departments and from users of the site. The menus organize all that data into logical categories based on topics that are pertinent to youth, and within those categories make content easy to locate. The homepage offers many colorful links to help users find the information they need, and also seems to try to interest users in information that they didn't know was available. The interface makes discovering more than you had originally come there to find out extremely easy. Also, there is quite a bit of C2G participation, although not as much as the G2C. There are many resources detailing how to go about securing government services in person, but there aren't all that many services that are completely online yet. The C2G aspect of www.youth.gc.ca is more focused towards providing feedback instead of digital services. The forum is a good example of how citizens can become involved in the website and in the government.

The website did not have a posted mission statement exactly, but they did in two places post something of the kind: “youth.gc.ca is the single access point for youth related information on the Internet. You'll find everything from government programs and services, to information on education, employment, travel, community events and much more.”- FAQ. “youth.gc.ca is all about helping youth between 15 and 30 years of age. It is THE place to tap into a wide variety of information. Whether you need a hand finding a job or would like to start your own business, it is all here at your fingertips on youth.gc.ca! On this site, you will find information ranging from health and education programs to sports and cultural activities. -About Us. Therefore, the mission of youth.gc.ca seems to be to aid young citizens by providing information and government services focused on Canadian youth. The website does do this- brilliantly with information, and less so with services. One area in which the website excels is in accessibility. Although the homepage is very graphical, suited to high-speed Internet connections, upon entering the site, and after one selects whether they wish to view the French or English page (also great for accessibility, but standard for Canada, so less noteworthy), one is given the option of selecting an image based interface or a more textual interface, that will work better with slower connections. This means that those who do not have high speed access do not miss out on any website features. Not everything about youth.gc.ca is wonderful, however. Although it seems as though one should be able to, for example, replace stolen identification online, it isn't yet possible. In its FAQ, youth.gc.ca provides a link to the main government website page that details how to apply for new identification in person. Helpful, but not anywhere quite as easy for the citizen as providing a link to an online form. However, there are improvements. Nearby, the site provides a link to a passport services website that allows citizens to apply for a passport online. It seems simple enough.

Canadian youth should feel like they want to use this website. The information it provides is valuable, as well as the government services. Also, there is of course the remarkable addition of the forum. To register to post in the forum, one must be a Canadian citizen, or living in Canada, and meet the age requirements. The stated mission of the Canadian Youth Connection (CYC) forum, as it as called, is: “The CYC is an online forum for youth aged 15 to 30 that provides young Canadians with a secure online environment where they can: meet and interact with other youth from across the nation; participate in surveys and on-line testing of various government services for youth to provide feedback to the Government of Canada ; express their opinions and engage in discussions on various issues ; develop their critical thinking skills ; have fun!” -About Us The forum is an interesting idea, greatly facilitating C2G interaction. Through it, the website is constantly improving itself, continuously updating in an effort to supply its young users with what they desire of eGovernment. Perhaps by this process, the website will soon reach Stage V.

The website isn't perfect. There are many more government services that could be digitized and placed online, instead of just information on how to go about getting services the old-fashioned way. But there is no better way that a youth-oriented site like youth.gc.ca could be integrated with the main government website, and the search functionality, flash animation, and easy-to-use menus ensure that not only is a great deal of information available, but it's easy to access and possibly even enjoy. If all the Canadian government websites were operated by the team that operates this one, one might expect that an increasing amount of services would be offered online as well as in person. Until the other departments really move to do that, however, youth.gc.ca will have to remain dependent upon its profuse amount of information available, and continue using the forums to engage youth and provide stimulus to improve online service. youth.gc.ca is a great example of a very modern, Stage IV government website.