CyberCaucus grew out of 1995-96 experiment

CyberCaucus 2000, a creation of nine journalism students at Drake University, was inspired by the original CyberCaucus web site, which covered the 1996 presidential election.

The original site, which can be reached at http://www.drake.edu/public/caucus.html, was the brainchild of Laura Peterson Potter in the spring of 1995. Potter, a mathematics major, graduated from Drake University in 1995. The site development was supported by an undergraduate research grant from Drake University.

Other important players in the creation of the original CyberCaucus site were Shelby Bailey, a journalism major from Davenport, Iowa, and Erika Goedrich, a broadcast journalism major from Schulenberg, Texas. These two students, both of whom subsequently graduated from Drake, helped maintain the site. Robert D. Woodward, Ellis and Nelle Levitt professor of journalism and mass communication, was the project's adviser.

CyberCaucus was an excellent first effort at designing and constructing a web site to illustrate the importance of the Iowa caucuses. A thorough background on the legacy of the Iowa caucus is provided, paving the way for an analysis fo the 1996 Iowa caucus and its participants.

The CyberCaucus site also offered a collection of stories by Des Moines Register reporters on the 1996 caucuses. --Reported by BJ White, 4/29/1999