The Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet (IPDI) is part of the Graduate School of Political Management of The George Washington University. Its mission is to promote the use of the Internet and new communication technologies in politics to enhance democratic values, encourage citizen participation and improve governance, at home and abroad; in short, to “democratize democracy.”
IPDI conducts research that anticipates and interprets trends; publishes studies and guidelines that that show candidates, public officials and activists how to make the best use of the new communication tools; and holds seminars and conferences that advocate best practices, teach new skills and allow for the national and international exchange of ideas on the democratizing uses of the Internet and other new technologies.
History of IPDI
The Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet (IPDI) at the Graduate School of Political Management was originally chartered by The George Washington University in the spring of 1998 as the Democracy Online Project, and re-chartered in 2002 as an institute under its current name. Both entities were initially funded with grants from The Pew Charitable Trusts. We have also received grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York , the Joyce Foundation, and the Reform Institute.
The Institute's groundbreaking research has attracted national and international acclaim. In September 2005, The Institute was included in the “Top Ten Changing the World of Internet & Politics,” by PoliticsOnline, Inc., and the Worldwide Forum on E-Democracy at their 6th annual meeting in Paris , France .
In the last several years our studies and senior staff have been cited in the The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, ABC News, Los Angeles Times, National Public Radio , the Washington Post, National Journal, the NewsHour, MSNBC, Fox News, AP Newswire, Boston Globe and C-SPAN, Financial Times, The Guardian, Canadian Broadcasting, BBC World News and Ottawa Citizen as well as regional and local newspapers and trade magazines.
The reason for this national and international attention is the Institute's pioneering and prolific body of work, including eight new studies in the last two years. The newest publication, Small Donors and Online Giving: A Study of Donors to the 2004 Presidential Campaigns , was released on March 3, 2006 . Last fall we published The Politics-to-Go Handbook: A Guide to Using Mobile Technology in Politics , which was released at an event we co-sponsored with Wired magazine.
One of the Institute's most consequential and publicized studies, Online Political Influentials in the 2004 Campaign, documents the remarkable extent to which people who participate in online politics are active and involved community leaders. The study changed the press and the campaigns' view of the online political population from geeks and nerds to local opinion leaders who influence their friends, colleagues and neighbors.
