ABSTRACT
Technology has long played a role in political campaigning. It has also played a role, though a lesser one, in governing. Consider this: in 1896, U.S. presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan crisscrossed America by rail, making more than 600 campaign speeches. Never before had this degree of direct outreach to voters occurred. Even still, if we make the generous assumption that each of his speeches was heard by 1,000 people, only 600,000 Americans—or 1% of the population— ever directly saw the face or heard the voice of Bryan.
