Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Obama '08: A lesson in Social Networking


            The Technology Review article, “How Obama Really Did It,” tells an interesting tale of how President Barack Obama’s campaign utilized the internet and social networking to raise funds for his campaign and spread the word of his candidacy. Taking inspiration from the failed campaign of 2004 democratic candidate Howard Dean, who raised $27 million in online donations, Obama’s campaign used online technology to fund his campaign, recruit volunteers, and create databases to distribute important information to all of his staff, volunteers and employees.
            The unprecedented MyBO databases described in the article allowed volunteers in specific communities to view which of their neighbors were undecided, and then take the canvassing process to the desirable parties. One of the founders of Blue State Digital, which worked on MyBO, spoke about how the new technologies allowed the campaign to reach unprecedented levels of volunteer participation, giving those with a will to help a chance to participate in their community.
The article also discusses how Obama’s opponent in the democratic primary, Hillary Clinton, also made a less-heralded effort to incorporate similar technologies into her campaign. The Clinton campaign, which did make an effort to use social networks, placed less of a premium on them during the election. Andrew Rasiej, founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, says that even though Howard Dean raised a large amount of money, he did not win, and therefore campaigns (other than Obama’s) had less faith in social networks during the ’08 election. That forum, is a website which discusses the connection between technology and politics. 

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