Using several tools, including the HTTrack Website Copier, the following 21 sites were monitored for content changes during a two-week period (April 18 - May 2, 2003). The sample of 21 sites was designed to be as broad as possible in terms of both content (representing political views across a broad spectrum, ranging from mainstream groups to insurgencies, formal and informal groups, etc.) and form (mime types and file formats, small sites and large sites, etc.).

In terms of the typology used for this exercise, the following conclusions emerge:

• Party, candidate, and electoral coverage sites typically have regular or frequent content updates in the period leading up to the elections.
• Party sites for groups that are not engaged in a current electoral campaign are updated infrequently, with the exception of large, long-established, and well-endowed parties, like the PRI in Mexico.
• Sites that have a section containing news items, in this case including the alternative media and some of the New Social Movement sites, tend to be updated more frequently, in most cases daily or even multiple times during the day.
• New Social Movement sites tend to be more or less active in terms of content updates in relation to how current their "cause" is.

For each of the sites listed below, the number to the right of the site name is the number of days during the 10 day (M-F for two weeks) measuring period that the site contents were changed or updated.

The full results of this exercise are available in this Table.

Candidates & Electoral Coverage

All four sites in this category pertained to a "current" electoral campaign, in this case Argentina, with the election itself falling midway through the exercise period. As expected, the sites were very active: three of the four had content changes on a daily basis every single day during the exercise period. The Menem site changed on only two ocassions.
• Kirchner 10
• Menem 2
• La Nacion Suplemento Electoral 10
• UOL Suplemento Electoral 10

Political Parties

The four parties range across the political spectrum, and are a mix of "in power" and "opposition". Mexico's PRI party site had daily content changes. On the other extreme, Guatemala's FRG site had no content changes at all during the exercise period. The FMLN and FSLN sites are both very large and extensive, and had content changes intermitently throughout the measurement period.
• FSLN 1
• FRG 0
• FMLN 4
• PRI 10

Alternative Political Media

Both of these sites are very active; this exercise confirmed that the sites have multiple content changes and updates on a daily basis.
• Politica y Actualidad 10
• Argentina Centro de Medios Independientes 10

Insurgencies

The Mexican FZLN insurgency appears to be quite active; during the exercise period, content updates were registered on about half of the days. The Movimiento Bolivariano site is affiliated with the Colombian FARC guerrilla force; none of the pages on this site have been updated since November 2002.
• Movimiento Bolivariano Colombia 0
• FZLN Mexico 5

"New Social Movements"

Nine sites were chosen to represent this broad category. Two of the sites had no content changes at all during this period; five of the sites changed four times or less during this period; and two, which had a large amount of news coverage related to their area of interest, changed daily or nearly every day.
• Antiescualidos.com 1
• Asamblea Popular Revolucionaria 1
• Chavistas.com 10
• Red Bolivariana 7
• NuevasBases.org 2
• Cordoba Nexo 0
• El Corralito 0
• confinesociales.org 4
• Asociacion Conciencia 4