I was keenly aware of this online battle:
I really believe that the way the Obama camp immersed itself with technology was a key to victory. They did an outstanding job with facebook and MySpace profiles, with their MyBO portal, their personalized e-mail and text message distribution. We all know that Barack didn’t personally pound out a text message at 12:52am on November 5th, but there is still a certain amount of satisfaction from receiving a “thank you” from a candidate mere minutes after watching his acceptance speech.
What will be truly interesting to me is: Where does this go from here? They’ve spent 21 months compiling a massive list of supporters with e-mail addresses and phone numbers… well what happens next?
I don’t think it ended on election night. In fact, the last e-mail I received from the campaign states “I’ll be in touch soon about what comes next.” So I do believe there’s more to come.
But for how long? Once he steps into the oval office, a whole new set of rules will apply. And since we haven’t exactly had a “high-tech” president yet, we really don’t know how text messages and e-mails can be used to govern. But it will at least be interesting to watch.
