Sunday, November 16, 2008
You Are Now Friends With Barack Obama
In an article by Farhad Manjoo in Slate Magazine, he details the importance of the technological campaign put together by new President elect Barack Obama and his staff. Obama's team recognized the potential that the Internet has to attract and organize volunteers which helped Obama to achieve victory in the democratic primaries as well as this month's presidential election.
One of those important internet technologies Obama's campaign utilized were social-networking sites, which enabled them to raise enthusiasm towards his campaign. Obama was registered to many different social networking sites, but also created their own social networking site, http://my.barackobama.com/, which encouraged supporters to connect with one another to launch their own voter registration drives, phone banks, door to door canvassing and other means of campaigning.
Democratic Web expert Joe Trippi believes that the White House Web site will be utilized byObama simlar to a social networking site, or as Trippi calls it, "A Facebook for citizens". If used correctly, Trippi believes the web site can become a place where people can learn about Obama's policies and then work toward passing whatever is on the Presiden't agenda. There is reason for optimism for this to be a success because of the positive impact Obama's social networking site had on his campaign. Trippi adds,
"I think it's going to be one of the most powerful presidencies we've seen since FDR, and maybe even more powerful. Even the best presidents have never had a way to connect directly with millions of Americans—Obama will have that".
