The Power of Internet
Please do not press the power button below or you will immediately shut down the world’s internets.
Just kidding.
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It is without a doubt that Obama’s use of technology and the internet has–thus far–helped him acquire successes in his ongoing presidential campaign. Obama is not just aware of the internet, he just totally gets it.
He gets technology altogether. Obama’s addicted to his blackberry, and McCain likes how it flashes lights.
Obama will make history because he has been able to successfully assemble the power of his online supporters.
But perhaps, no other presidential campaign committee has discovered the power of internet like the Dean campaign did in 2004. Obama’s campaign tactics are an evolution of what happened during the Dean campaign.
Teechout and Streeter’s Mousepads, ShoeLeather, and Hope is a compilation of stories and interviews from the people of the Howard Dean campaign. These people were involved in the campaign from its netroots, which was the key tool in the “complicated” and “complex” Dean campaign. These people discovered that the the local meet-up could transform an entire political mobilizing machine, which is exactly what Meet-up.com did for the campaign. But, the most important factor in the Dean campaign committee was the fact that the face of the campaign, Howard Dean himself, understood the internet to be a powerful tool. In his interview in the book, Dean describes how he created his slogan “You have the power” based on the prevalent online activity of his supporters. The Dean campaign did not control the occurrences or the momentum of the meet-ups that were occurring all over the nation. For the most part, they left it in the hands of the group creators and provided resources and assistance if needed. Dean mentions that the movement that was occurring online was a bottom-up movement and not a top-down movement.
So Dean wasn’t responsible for the “nuts and bolts” of his internet campaign strategy, but it was crucial that he understood not only the power of the internet in his campaign but that his campaign was the internet campaign.
Does the McCain camp really understand this powerful tool called the internet? Of course, they do because he losing the internet battle- and I know someone has put it in those terms for him to understand. But, in the mean time Obama’s about to cross the finish line…
