The Internet President

Since Howard Dean's unprecedented fundraising success online in 2003, a lot of speculation has gone into how the technology of the Internet might transform politics and when we might have our first "Internet President." Over the course of the 2008 election, we witnessed a phenomenon that could never have occurred in the past as a little known senator harnessed the tools of technology to reach out to the masses, engaging us and giving us shared ownership of his national campaign. The Obama campaign was the likes of which we've never seen before, and because of their decisive mastery of the Internet, he not only won the presidency, but he won by a substantial margin.

In this election it was very clear that the Internet was a major force in helping Barack Obama win. Without it, he likely would not have secured the nomination or the presidency. His inspiring message of change resonated perfectly with the openness of the Internet and instead of just talking to one person in a small town who then used word of mouth to transport his message on the ground, he presented his message online as well, letting word ripple out across the country, building a huge wave.

Obama was able to do this via social networking tools and the most interactive political website built to date, along with online outreach through e-mail and and the blogosphere. Most importantly, the campaign was able to bridge the gap between online and ground level activism, fundraising through small donations and leveraging that money for expensive TV ad buys required to reach across the country to win big. It may never be possible to win a campaign entirely online, but Obama utilized a combination of traditional grassroots organizing and netroots tactics for success.

To understand why this was possible, it helps to understand the numbers - according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project report released early in the summer, we have nearly reached a point where the majority of American adults are using the Internet to learn about candidates and participate in elections. Merging that with Democratic voter demographics including a majority of youth and urban voters, we had an ideal online environment for a Democratic campaign to take the lead.

The McCain campaign in comparison, took more advantage of advanced Internet tools later in their campaign, admitting they were not targeting voters as actively that way because e-mail was still more successful in reaching their base online. In the Democratic primary race, the Clinton campaign held tightly onto traditional organizing methods rather than allowing for increased online techniques, which contributed to the campaign's demise. They did some impressive things through the Internet and new media, but without an infrastructure that embraced it in the way Obama's did, they were unable to sustain the same level of fundraising success or volunteer mobilization.

In an earlier article, I addressed what all of this means to the future of modern democracy in terms of open government by Obama, noting that our level of participation should expand drastically. Expect whitehouse.gov to look more like my.barackobama.com than the static website we've seen in the past, including a public comment area where the new president will invite feedback online for five days on any non-emergency legislation before he signs it into law. It signals the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Congratulations to our first Internet President, Barack Obama.

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As of this week, Sarah Granger will continue writing about technology and politics for the Personal Democracy Forum and techPresident.

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Comments

[Giada]

Obama has a db of 10M who receive weekly emails. His fireside chats will be on youtube weekly, love bypassing MSM.

I'm eager to see what the Gay and Lesbian group do to obtain national support in changing state laws. I see new sites going up daily.

GOP leaders like Mitt Romney and the Mormon church may well have lost the small power they've held in the last few years.

[Progress08]

I'm sorry Sarah, but I'm the president of the internet and by president I mean the leader of the Dorks, so yes I am Farmer Ted.

[VirginiaMom]

We need a study to be done: the "red" areas that went for McCain -- what are the levels of high-speed internet access in these areas? The "bluest" areas that went for Obama: are there higher levels of internet usage there?

[chewie2008]

Interesting point and possibly a very valid one too.In this day and age internet access must be an important agenda for Obama.It`s the last free bastion of free information and as this election has shown a crucial one it was.

[StuartH]

Having lived in a rural area of Arizona and looked at telecom infrastructure from that standpoint, it seems to me that the McCain vote comes from parts of the US population that are the least connected to information diversity. The key issue is really the whole diversity and the culture of diversity. In cities like Seattle, for instance, people are used to living in a culture with a lot of diverse viewpoints as well as pretty high comfort with multiculturalism. In rural areas, distribution over distance really creates barriers.

Distribution of resources from water to electric power to advanced telephony circuits to newspapers is a problem associated with higher cost per mile and lower revenue potential. The newspapers that there are tend to be poorly funded and therefore poorly edited and full of filler material. Right wing talk radio and slanted news coverage is about all there is because, again, of the economics.

The internet could superceded this, but there are technical limitations to overcome. Companies like Motorola have experimented in places like India with new wireless broadband technologies that can deliver television as well as broadband over towers that are essentially more robust cell towers. In the US, this could help solve some rural distribution issues, but there are incumbent phone companies with billions invested in older technologies.

Hopefully, under an Obama administration progress will be made to support advances in telecom infrastructure that can bring more diversity of communications options to rural areas, especially in the West.