Countless posts have lamented the right's hesitation to mobilize on the web. It's a topic that the conservative blogosphere mourns continuously. We've seen numerous stories in the press, including the Politico article earlier this week, yet why haven't we arrived at a solution?

It certainly isn't for a lack of innovation. Web strategists and bloggers are devoted to a number of projects aimed towards engaging the right. However, there still isn't much movement on the right. We need to take a step backward. Building a better mousetrap isn't going to help us here. We need to figure out what motivates the mouse before we try to trap it.

Very little is known about web behavior and consumption. Thus far, it has challenged traditional broadcast patterns that predicted behavior with mass media. No one on either side really understands the full picture either. Pew is starting to get a handle on the situation, but changes on the web keep throwing off trends.

It goes without saying that Republicans and Democrats are different. We think, act and vote differently, but why are we treating two very different groups of people with the same tactics?

If the web has done anything, it shows that top-down broadcast campaigns are no longer necessary. Web users demand personalization. Is it surprising then that the most individualistic of web users aren't going to respond to tactics engineered by a collective mentality? The right and left use the web differently. The problem is that we don't know how.

This spring, I conducted an online survey of political web behavior for my graduate thesis, which covered this issue. Nearly 450 people participated, and overall 41% identified as conservative, 30% liberal, 20% moderate and 6% libertarian.

Not surprisingly, Republicans and Democrats evenly participated in receiving e-mail alerts, signing petitions and even blogging. However, they started differing when asked about activities relating to social media and activism.

Activism on the right presents the biggest challenge. The concept of activism brings up negative connotations among conservatives. Nearly 44% of all respondents would not consider themselves to be activists. When broken down by party affiliation, only 34% of conservatives compared to 55% of liberals identified with the activist label.

Conservatives also prefer pundit-type sites. Only 22% of participants said that they "very much liked" web sites with an interactive or grassroots focus. When asked how they felt about more analytical Web sites that contained news stories and blogs, 42% claimed "somewhat" and 45% responded "very." Respondents were then asked what type they preferred, and 59% replied a combination of both, while 36% favored news analysis and blogs.

What do these numbers mean? While this was a small survey conducted for a grad student, there's evidence that we need to approach this situation differently. Conservatives simply won't participate in anything deemed as "activism." While it is possible for this attitude to change over time, we need to consider these preferences when reaching out to them on the web.

Just as, Allen Roth described, issuing a call to action is critical for building momentum with issues. By including that simple action step on your next blog post, it takes the topic from discussion to activity. While supporters are likely to take the next step if explicitly asked, participation rates increase even more when the tools are provided for them to act right there.

Why have the netroots thrived while the right crawls along? It's a far easier ask for a liberal activist to take up pundit activities, such as blogging, than it is for a conservative pundit to go beyond their comfort zones and participate in a rally or protest. While the activist mentality does exist on the right, it's largely contained to the religious right and pro-lifers.

This survey only begins to scratch the surface of the differences of web behavior among Republicans and Democrats. If we want to succeed in the long run, there needs to be some effort into researching these differences. Understanding the outlook and behavior of conservatives on the web can eliminate the guessing game going on right now.

The future of TV and radio isn't looking so bright. While the general consensus may hold that TV remains the dominant media, an Edison Media Research/Arbitron report found that TV's lead is actually tenuous:

Consumers age 12 and older were asked to choose the “most essential” medium in their life; 33 percent chose the Internet, just behind television (36 percent), but above radio (17 percent) and newspapers (10 percent); in 2002, the Internet trailed TV on this perception by a significant margin (20 percent vs. 39 percent), and also trailed radio’s 26 percent.

This is hardly surprising to anyone who follows technology news. We've seen smaller studies like this for a while, but when companies like Arbitron start releasing these numbers, it's time for everyone to take notice.

TV is still effective, but if campaigns want to get more bang for the buck, add the web into the mix. According to a Google presentation that I saw today, marketing campaigns are only spending 1 percent of budgets on new media. When web campaigns are linked with earned media, the results surpass TV advertising for a lot less money.

It looks like those of use who work in web-related fields have some job security since the Internet is projected to grow in the near future:

"It is not a stretch to say that the Internet has become just as important as television as an important source of information and entertainment in the lives of Americans,” said Larry Rosin, President, Edison Media Research. “It is entirely possible that the Internet will lead in all positive categories five years from now."