We launched the site after Dean's big online bonanza.  He was getting just an inordinate amount of press for his fundraising and web-organization through Meetup.com and Moveon.org.  Nick and I were somewhat angered at Dean's dominance of the Moveon primary-- we thought the other candidates paid too little attention to the process and were handicapping themselves because of it.  So Nick and I decided that Dick Gephardt, our Congressman and prefered Dem. nominee for President, needed to up-the-ante regarding his online activities.  His website was great, but it doesn't interact with Meetup.com like Dean's site.  Wesley Clark, an undeclared candidate, has more Meetup members than Dick!  Then, in the midst of us building this website, Matt Drudge ran a story about a canceled Gephardt meetup, and we decided that was the last straw and we would make sure this website went public ASAP and was as effective and innovative as possible.

As for a sentence on ME, I'm a college student from Crystal City, Missouri (hometown of Bill Bradley).  I've worked in campaigns for years, ever since I was 9.  I currently work for Stoll 2004 (Steve Stoll is a state Senator running to take over Dick's seat in Congress).

Nick Confer is a student at the University of Missouri Columbia where he is working on a Computer Engineering degree with a minor in Political Science. Confer has been a member of the College Democrats, and interns for a local Missouri Internet service provider called Midwest Internet Services.

We are both constituents of Dick Gephardt.

I would describe myself as a [political] veteran. I've worked on a US senate campaign, multiple state rep. and state senate campaigns, and now a congressional race (and I'm only 22 to boot).  I interned in 2001 with Senator Carnahan in DC for 3 months after having worked on Mel's senate campaign.

Nick is a political novice--he decided to become politically active because he believes in Dick Gephardt and his ability to lead this country.

Neither Nick nor I have ever done another campaign website.

I have met Dick Gephardt numerous times.  Nick has attended campaign events but has never met him face-to-face.

I am familiar with members of Dick Gephardt's campaign staff, both in Missouri and DC, as well as interns in his congressional office.  Nick is familiar with some of his DC interns as well.

As for any lessons learned, we had a few trolls in the initial days after launch, but we quickly dealt with that situation.  We have been working very hard to get media recognition and registered on various search engines on the internet-- a very challenging task.  We've also been working hard to make everyone @ Dick's campaign aware of our website and to want to showcase us as an example of Dick Gephardt's growing support on the Internet.

One thing of note-- within DAYS after launching the website, Nick and I had MULTIPLE PEOPLE offering to do whatever they could to help out with the website-- posting articles, making comments etc.  We could not have asked for a better supporting cast.  We've had people from the Gephardt campaign thank us for the work we're doing, and other people around the country come to the website and post or email us offering assistance.  It really has been a fun time so far, and as the website keeps growing, we hope to offer more services, like our AIM FOR THE WHITE HOUSE feature that will launch soon.  AIM FOR THE WHITE HOUSE will allow Gephardt supporters from around the country to be able to contact each other through our website in an Instant Messaging form.  We feel that this will be a bold innovation that future campaigns will want to capitalize on-- assuming we can get enough press to cover us that is :)