Obama, The Internet President, and why politics will never be the same again

Barack Obama has already made history by leveraging the Internet in ways politicos never envisioned. After watching how Howard Dean mobilized supporters and donors using the Web in his failed bid for the democratic nomination in 2004, Obama did his research, hired some smart Internet marketers, leveraged his experience as a community organizer, and built an online political machine. He raised funds by directly appealing to supporters, adding easy to use viral elements to expand his base of donors rapidly. He created a facebook page and got millions to "friend" him, using it as a platform to mobilize supporters and donors. He developed an e-mail list which ultimately totaled 10 million and got many of them to help with grassroots campaigning (he also got over 3 million of them to donate to his campaign - sensing a theme here;). He used YouTube as his own media channel, ultimately uploading over 1800 videos during the campaign (with over 100,000 more created by his supporters, including the famous Obama girl), 3 times the number of John McCain (and his videos were collectively viewed over 9 times the rate of McCain's). By doing so, he controlled his message and communication with the electorate, and was able to quickly respond to and neutralize negative messages from his opponents (his team did the same with blogs as well).

Now the Internet candidate is the Internet President-Elect, and having seen the power of the medium, he will leverage it as a platform for his philosophy of participatory government. While he can't leverage his supporter e-mail and donor base directly, he is encouraging them to sign up on change.gov (in fairness, he's interested in everyone signing up, not just democrats). On it you can apply for job in the new administration, read the latest news in terms of the transition, and watch his weekly radio address via a YouTube video (without a Republican response). The valued currency will no longer be donations (although given the cost of the financial bailouts, the US treasury could use them :), but engagement. The site has blogs, calls to join America Serves, and, of course, a place to register and provide your e-mail address. This is perhaps the most powerful component of presidentobama.com (which was available as of 11/14/08 by the way, for any domain squatters, along with the .org and .gov versions). Imagine 10 million people on the change.gov e-mail list getting a weekly newsletter on issues and pending legislation. Being asked to lobby their congressman or senator on short notice to pass a bill. Or encouraged to show up at a rally or town hall meeting to show support or opposition for pending legislation. If he decides to capture mobile phone numbers, he could add text messages as a media vehicle.

Online chats and news conferences, pictures and videos of white house and government events, soliciting comments on proposals (as well as polling the public) - all will be components of what has been referred to as "Obama 2.0". Of course, Web 2.0 participation works both ways, and how President Obama handles voter resistance will be the true test of the Internet President. Regardless, it will be nice to have a President interested in listening to the voice of the people after the last 8 years.