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MSNBC and MSNBC.com Get America to SpeakOut during Political Conventions'
SpeakOut.com’s research division, with cable news powerhouse, becomes first to generate second-by-second analysis of convention speakers

WASHINGTON, D.C. - July 20, 2000 - A frequent question during the campaign season has been "how will this year’s major party conventions be different than those of every other year?"

Now, thanks to a partnership between SpeakOut.com and MSNBC, there is an answer.

SpeakOut.com, a non-partisan Internet activism and opinion research portal, along with MSNBC and MSNBC.com, today announced that for the first time, television viewers will be able to deliver their views on convention speakers in real time. By logging on to MSNBC.com, and using SpeakOut’s patent-pending online "Ntercept™ Dial Poll" technology, participants will actively respond to convention speeches, with results adjusted to reflect the latest national exit poll data according to gender, political ideology and age.

During each night of the conventions, SpeakOut’s new Ntercept™ technology will report, second-by-second, an unbiased, unfiltered response to each speaker’s presentation. Moments after a speaker leaves the podium, SpeakOut and MSNBC will make available detailed analyses that break down how the users have reacted to the speech, identifying the themes that appealed to various groups and the messages which may have missed their mark.

"Historically, we have heard from pundits about how something 'will play in Peoria,'" said Erik Sorenson, Vice President and General Manager of MSNBC. "But now, thanks to the technology from SpeakOut.com, we’ll be able to go directly to the people and find out what they’re thinking."

The new technology, which SpeakOut calls Ntercept™, is an Internet-enabled tool that allows thousands of users to simultaneously react to televised or Internet-streamed images. The resulting data stream from the participants will show their cumulative levels of approval or disapproval for each speaker, with data that tracks to the individual words and phrases contained in a particular speech.

The Instant Viewer Response room, which can be found at speakout.msnbc.com, will be operational throughout the Republican and Democratic conventions. Starting Monday, July 24, those that wish to participate in the Instant Viewer Response Room may pre-register there.

MSNBC will use SpeakOut’s Instant Viewer Response Room in conjunction with the in-person focus groups that pollster Frank Luntz will moderate for MSNBC on each night of the Republican and Democratic conventions. MSNBC’s Luntz will interview a cross-section of voters before and after the major speeches, and then compare their reactions to the aggregated feelings of participants using SpeakOut’s Ntercept™ technology.

"Our new Ntercept™ technology enables the reaction of thousands of Americans to be known and understood in seconds, rather than hours," said Ron Howard, Chairman and CEO of SpeakOut.com. "Never before have the moment-by-moment feelings of so many people been measured so quickly. We are excited to add the voice of Internet-based research to the richness of reporting and analysis presented by MSNBC."

Preceding the conventions, and during the conventions themselves, MSNBC viewers and MSNBC.com visitors will be directed to a custom Web site designed by SpeakOut.com’s technology team. While a speaker is on the podium, either in Philadelphia or Los Angeles, Internet participants in the Instant Viewer Response Room will see SpeakOut’s Ntercept™ dial on their monitors. The dial has a 0-100 scale that participants use to indicate approval or disapproval. Moment by moment, SpeakOut can process the simultaneous opinions of thousands of users, providing MSNBC with a unique insight into the thinking of those who watch MSNBC’s live coverage of the national conventions.

While MSNBC will be the exclusive broadcaster of the data from the MSNBC/SpeakOut Instant Viewer Response Room, accredited print media will be able to subscribe to the information - which will be embargoed until shortly after each speech - via the SpeakOut.com Web site. Those interested in receiving e-mailed results from the Instant Viewer Response Room should pre-register before the opening of the conventions at www.speakout.com/resultsroom.

About SpeakOut.com

Based in Washington, DC, SpeakOut.com (www.speakout.com) is America’s leading non-partisan Internet activism Web site and online opinion research company. Launched in February 2000, SpeakOut.com’s primary mission is to enhance the democratic process by enabling citizens to have a direct impact on the decisions that affect their lives. Users enjoy a wide variety of news and information tailored to their interests and activism tools allowing aggregated messaging to a vast array of public officeholders, candidates, business and news executives.

About MSNBC

MSNBC is a partnership between NBC, a leading provider of news and information, and Microsoft, the leader in personal computer software and a major provider of Internet online services. Built on the worldwide resources of NBC News, MSNBC is a 24-hour cable news network with a companion Internet news service at www.msnbc.com. By developing programming simultaneously for cable and the Internet, MSNBC offers truly integrated television, interactive news and dynamic discussion of topical events.

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