Three scholars of the Univ. of Syracuse will publish a book that rates 80-20 as one of the two most successful, perhaps even the most effective, cyberspace political organizations in the nation in the 2000 election season. The book's title is "Click on Democracy: The Power of the Internet to Change Political Apathy into Action" S. B. Woo, President of 80-20 , was invited to write a "Foreword" for the book, which will be published by a division of HarperCollins. It can be pre-ordered on Amazon's web site: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0813340055/qid%3D10251989 92/ref%3D=sr%5F11%5F0%5F1/103-1079944-2047015
Chapter 2 of the book states: ".. for a Woo- or Bogosian-style success story in 2004 or beyond .." By "Woo," the authors mean the 80-20 PAC, of which S. B. Woo is president. Bogosian, Joe is the head of Young Professionals for Bush, the other most effective cyberspace political org. The book devotes 1/3 of Chapter 8 to describing 80-20 and its successes.
The idea for this book came from Dean David Rubin of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University. He suggested to his faculty that the 2000 national election would be the first one in which the Internet could play an important part. He invited any faculty members interested in researching the internet's role to come up with a plan for the research, and possibly for writing a book.
Profs. Steve Davis, Larry Elin and Grant Reeher organized a research team of about 10 persons to monitor Internet efforts of political parties, traditional media, and other politically oriented groups. They rated 80-20 as perhaps the most successful cyberspace political organization in the 2000 election season in achieving its goals and creating SOCIAL CAPITAL. Social capital is the connection among individuals, giving rise to social networks, reciprocity and trustworthiness . This "capital" enhances general happiness, health, and the quality of participants' political life.
S. B. Woo said, "80-20 is greatly honored. 80-20 was only 3 years old when evaluated, and yet it was rated as one of nation's best two. To my knowledge, no other Asian American civic or political organizations have gotten that kind of attention -- selected for careful evaluation by prestigious mainstream organizations, twice in the last two years."
He continued, "The other assessment of 80-20's effectiveness was a national survey led by a group of professors from Utah, Harvard, Yale and Florida, and sponsored by The National Science Foundation. The national survey showed that APAs voted for Gore, as suggested by 80-20, 'by more than 2 to 1' in the 2000 election. The real message of the two evaluations is clear. Our community's political clout is winning respect from the mainstream society, and that 80-20 is a significant organization. The credit goes to all who support 80-20. Politics clout depends on numbers. 80-20 now has 600,000 supporters on its e-mail list."
The survey result can be found in the following page:http://www.80-20initiative.net/PNAAPs.html
