David Talbot's "How Obama Really Did It"

http://cs12.cs.qc.cuny.edu/8fn_002.pdf

David Talbot's article "How Obama Really Did It" describes how Barack Obama's campaign used social technology to help him win the elections of 2008. Throughout the 2008 political season, 55 percent of Americans had broadband Internet at home, double the amount from the last presidential elections, making the internet a far more important player. Although other candidates had websites that allowed you to donate and had other social networking features, the Obama team put such technologies at the center of its campaign rather than thinking of the internet as a side project.

Spreading speeches and other content relating to Barack Obama online

The campaign realized that by putting things online. their supporters would spread it and multiply its viewership. Online, the campaign posted Obama's speeches, and linked to material posted by supporters. Some Obama speeches reached millions of YouTube views, as well as things such as songs relating to him.

Raising money

Obama's social-networking site, www.my.barackobama.com, also known as MyBO, along with Obama's main site, helped the Obama Campaign rake in cash by small donors. Visitors could use credits cards to make single donations or sign up for monthly donations. Over $55 million in donations were given to the Obama campaign in a single month, the month before Super Tuesday II. By July of 2008, the campaign raised more than $200 million from more than a million online donors, which was a majority of the campaign cash he raised.

Getting voters

MyBO gave the Obama team the ability to wage networked campaign warfare. Around 104,000 Texans joined MyBO, whose databases could organize lists of volunteers by regions and appoint people tasks. It made it simple to contact people to vote, especially undecided voters. This was critical in getting votes in Texas during Super Tuesday II. MyBO logged over a million user accounts and facilitated 77,500 local events, according to Blue State Digital. It had people organizing meetings and distributing media across the internet.

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While the Obama administration used the internet/social technology in these ways, the Clinton campaign was using more traditional methods like big fundraisers. Joe Trippi said, comparing the Obama and Clinton campaigns: "They are chanting 'Yes we can' and she's saying 'I don't need you'"


Obama's campaign created "the ultimate online political machine"