Video Voter

Video Voter dates back to the mid-nineties when Tracy Westen, CEO of CGS, formulated a visionary concept called the Democracy Network (DNET). Years before on Demand video, and a decade before web video became a reality, Westen envisioned an electorate informed via video, both online and on demand.

From the earliest beginnings of our democracy, most political communications were top down and constrained by the fiscal limitations imposed on getting the word out. Initially it was broadsides and newspapers, which required capital and connections to utilize as a means of communication. In the twentieth century newsreels and radio came along, and eventually television broke in to share the stage, yet the barriers of cost and access remained. The affluent had the advantage - through funding and networking - of being able to get their message out to the broadest audience. The rise of cable television and local access programming cracked the doors open, but what made it through to the viewer was still a trickle of what was to come. In the early nineties, the internet appeared on the scene, and Westen's keen eye for trend spotting paid off with the acquisition of a rare 3 letter domain name for Video Voter's parent, CGS.

So, in 1993, with the CGS domain in hand, Westen's thoughts started to focus more intently on this new paradigm in communications. He started processing the wants and needs of a healthy democracy through the filter of the internet, and the potentially disruptive and granular levels of communication it promised. As the conceptual underpinning surround the DNET concept took shape, he began to imagine a vast network of video delivery on national and local levels, allowing for a representational government that had never before been witnessed. As with most future thinking, the ability to achieve Westen's goals was tempered by available technologies. The last decade has seen exponential growth in all the disciplines related to the original idea behind DNET. Online storage, connections speeds, processor and video quality have all converged with the emergence of YouTube, drastically altering the landscape of political discourse and swinging the door of potential wide open for Westen's long held aspirations.