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SpeakOut.com & Wake Forest University Set to "Rate the Debate" Between George W. Bush and Al Gore
Online Research Firm and Debate Host Organize Instant Viewer Response

WASHINGTON, D.C – September 15, 2000 – The Bush and Gore campaigns have finally agreed to have their candidates meet in debate, and Speakout.com and Wake Forest University have teamed up to offer "Rate the Debate" Technology that will allow up to 5,000 college students nationwide to offer simultaneous moment-by-moment feedback on the October 11 encounter between the Republican and Democratic Candidates.

SpeakOut.com's patent-pending Ntercept^TM technology, which was used to analyze the hits and misses of the major speeches at the Republican and Democratic conventions in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, will be deployed for each of the debates sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. These events will mark the first time that Americans will be invited to rate presidential debate performances on a second-by-second basis via the Internet. The partnership with Wake Forest is the first of several agreements that will contribute to the largest-ever focus group for a live event.

SpeakOut.com (www.speakout.com) and Wake Forest University (http://debate.wfu.edu) will invite a selected group of up to 5,000 college students nationwide to log on to register their real-time responses to the candidates as they go head-to-head to debate the tough issues of Campaign 2000. Each participant will be presented with an Internet-based "dial meter" on their computer that allows them to score every second of the debate on a 0-100 scale indicating levels of disapproval and approval. The aggregated data from the respondents, broken down by party and other demographic factors, will be processed immediately at SpeakOut.com and made available to the public, even before the debate concludes. Comprehensive analysis and statistics will be available at SpeakOut.com minutes after the debate has concluded.

Wake Forest University, known for its innovative use of technology to further educational goals, seeks to increase youth participation in Election 2000 through a series of events surrounding the debate.

"Our partnership with SpeakOut.com gives young voters a profound voice and opportunity to participate in the election process," said Sandra Boyette, Vice President for University Advancement for Wake Forest University. "Technology, particularly Internet technology, has opened new avenues for our youth to become active participants in a process from which many feel detached and disaffected."

"In Philadelphia and Los Angeles, we knew exactly how and why Bush and Gore connected with their audiences before they left the stage," said Ron Howard, Chairman and CEO of SpeakOut.com. “At the upcoming debates, we look forward to working with Wake Forest to provide instantaneous understanding of the views and opinions of thousands of individuals, representing important segments of the American public."

The SpeakOut.com/Wake Forest University "Rate the Debate" registration and response room, which can be accessed at www.speakout.com/debates, will allow users to pre-register to participate and will provide a wide variety of data and statistics from the debate immediately after its conclusion.

Accredited media interested in obtaining debate analysis charts and graphs immediately following each debate can connect to www.speakout.com/debates/pressroom for access information and links to earlier convention results.

About SpeakOut.com

Based in Washington, DC, SpeakOut.com  is America's leading non-partisan Internet activism portal and online opinion research company. Launched in February 2000, SpeakOut.com seeks to enhance the democratic process by enabling citizens to have a voice in the decisions that affect their lives. Recently named by Forbes Magazine as one of the Top 10 political websites, SpeakOut offers users 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. SpeakOut.com invites users to participate in surveys and market research through its patent-pending NterceptTM research technology that brings the research room to the living room. Ntercept^TM provides real time, second-by-second analysis and allows for larger panels of respondents than ever before, with a lower cost and greater speed.

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