Category: Politics

Since 1964, a Christmas Tree has been placed in front of the U.S. Capitol each year (now it is lamely labeled a ‘Holiday Tree’ for the sake of political correctness). And since 1969 that tree has come from a different National Forest.

In 1997, I was working in the Senate Democratic Technology & Communications Committee as an Internet evangelist to Democratic Senators. It was a wonderful job in which I had many opportunities to help find new and interesting ways for a Senator to go online. Our boss was Senator Tom Daschle, the Democratic Leader, and in 1997 the Capitol tree was coming from the Black Hills National Forest in his home state of South Dakota. Tasked with finding a way to do something online with the bosses tree, my colleague Jeff and I shared the same thought instantaneously… treecam!

In some choice real estate in the Capitol Building, we placed an old TV camera, a Macintosh computer, and a network connection to take a still picture of the tree every minute and upload it to the Internet. Neato, right?

The Treecam was a sensation that drew tremendous amounts of online visitors and national press coverage. Many people would venture out to the West Lawn of the Capitol to stand next to the tree, while a friend captured the Treecam image for them when it went online. Reportedly one television weatherman showed the Treecam as a background for his forecasts. And a collection of all of the Treecam images were combined together to form a time-lapse movie in which the decorating and lighting of the tree, and the passing of the hours and days could be seen in rapid succession.

Treecam became a tradition that continued for six more years since that first one. Until this year. Things change in the aftermath of an election. Senator Daschle was defeated, and another Senator has been elected to the job of Democratic Leader. A week ago, at least a half-dozen technical staff on the Democratic Communications Committee were notified that their services would no longer be needed. Such personnel changes are any new boss’ prerogative. But to axe such skilled, dedicated, loyal and long-serving employees a week before Christmas is an indication to me that much more than just the Treecam has gone dark this holiday season in the Capitol.

Where does the time go? Ten years ago, thanks to some dumb luck, good help, and fortuitous timing, I helped to make Sen. Edward Kennedy the first member of Congress with a web site. The office had taken its first steps online more than a year previously, first on dial-up bulletin board systems, then an ftp directory, some usenet newsgroups, and eventually onto the Senate’s new gopher server. But 1994 was the year of the web. The letters WWW took on a whole new meaning, and thanks to the efforts of Eric Loeb and John Mallery at MIT, in May of 1994 Senator Kennedy became the first member of Congress with a home page on the World Wide Web.

Ten years later, that event is officially a milestone, and there’s even a new poster commemorating the events of The Digital Decade in politics to prove it.

They say that history belongs to those who write it, and so I did (you can even still buy it – used for 49¢!), more than once, but several times. And whether from my telling of that tale, or from bullet point milestones on posters such as this one, Kennedy’s role as a leader in helping bring politics online is well-established.

Recently Kennedy’s office and the University of Virginia’s Miller Center for Public Affairs announced the launch of a six-year oral history project to “create an archive of spoken recollections and reflections that illuminates Senator Kennedy’s public life, his vocation, the institution in which he has served and the political world in which he has moved.” In the big picture of his legislative career and continuing public service, Senator Kennedy’s leadership in bringing politics online will be just a footnote. But in my field of online politics, it’s a major milestone, and one that I remain very proud to have played a part in reaching.