At the centre of this collaboration is the Web White & Blue 2000 (WWB2000) website. It is sponsored by the Markle Foundation - a private not-for-profit organisation that promotes public-interest communications industries.
The rolling cyber debate kicked off on 1 October and will be carried by the WWB2000 site and 17 'charter sites', including MSNBC, The New York Times, Fox News.Com, abcNews.com, USA Today.com and the Washingtonpost.com.
The organisers claim that the combination of news sites will reach around 85% of the internet audience.
WWB2000 says its aim is to "increase voter understanding of public policy and election related issues and to increase civic participation and voter interaction with candidates on a non-partisan basis".
The project has strict editorial rules to ensure that it will be "non-partisan, fair, balanced and ethical".
On the day of the launch of the cyber debate, 'Joe' of Tulsa, Oklahoma asked the presidential hopefuls what the most important election issue was. In a response that perhaps mirrors recent gaffes made by George Bush, the Democrat candidate Al Gore started his reply with: "That's a great question, Joe, and it makes a good point as well."
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