07Jul Obama: The First President of America 2.0?
Obama is somewhat of a newcomer on the political scene, and yet he has garnered a huge following.
He has beat great odds to become the number 1 candidate for presidency. He is even beating McCain out by many points in states that normally go to republicans, like Montana.
Why is this?
Because Obama has embraced web 2.0.
He has embraced sites like facebook, twitter, and youtube. He, and / or those on his marketing team know the power that social media holds. Not to mention many fans of Obama can be found embracing social media - for instance this popular video by Obamagirl.
Obama, is also the only candidate suggesting a cabinet position aimed at web / technology.
I personally believe that Obama’s use of web 2.0 and social media may be the beginning of a paradigm shift in America. I believe that we may be on the verge of a new era in US politics. Call me optimistic, but I believe with social media, politicians will hold less power, and more power will be put in the hands of the people.
Most Americans believe that we’re headed in the wrong direction. Many believe that a huge catastrophe is on the horizon. Whether natural or economic, our future is not certain anymore.
All things change, and many things always need change but go unchanged. I believe for America to survive that there will come a day of reckoning where the great minds of the country will have to get together and re-organize our country from the ground up.
The reason we have a representative democracy and not a full democracy is mostly because in the days of the founding fathers it would’ve been a logistical nightmare. They didn’t have the lines of communication that we have today.
If you’re a skeptic on the power of social media, you really should check out opencongress.org it is a refreshing social network brought to us by: Participatory Politics Foundation and the Sunlight Foundation.
This is a great site for following the politicians that you want to follow. You can see their voting patterns, history, etc. You can also see other politicians like them, or those who are totally the opposite.
You can follow the issues that matter most to you, like Access to Health care, Abortion, etc…
You can actually vote on the issues, and bills that you’d like to see pass legislation.
The site doesn’t get as much publicity as it should - yet. But I can see it becoming a huge playing field for bi-partisan politics to take hold.
Those who aren’t net-savvy may miss out here on this great opportunity to share their voice / opinion, but I believe this is a great start to a new democracy 2.0.
To read more about the features of OpenCongress.Org check out this article at ReadWriteWeb.
Here are some good related articles:
- The Facebooker Who Friended Obama
- Obama and the Facebooker
- Chris Hughes, Facebook co-founder, Has Big Role in Obama Campaign
- How Barack Obama won Facebook
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Tags: abortion, cabinet position, catastrophe, day of reckoning, facebook, founding fathers, logistical nightmare, many things, marketing team, mccain, new era, obama, paradigm shift, presidency, president, representative democracy, skeptic, Social Media, Social network, Technology, Twitter, web technology, wrong direction, youtube
July 7th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
This is excellent! You are absolutely right, and I think the number of Obama followers on Twitter vs. Hillary was very telling. The only issue is I think his Twitter and other accounts should be more personal. I know he probably doesn’t have time to send personal messages, but a staff member should do it. For instance, I could see him microblogging on Twitter constantly about where he is and what he’s doing.
July 8th, 2008 at 6:34 am
@Kelby: good point - I’m sure he could do more on twitter / facebook etc…but then I’m sure we all could.. I think it’s cool that he’s hired one of the founders of facebook on his team to run his social networking.
I also heard on the news last night that he’s doing his dnc speech in a stadium an expecting around 70,000 people to come out and show their support. Someone on his team is a great marketer - they’re running a contest to give 10 people backstage passes(like he’s a rockstar or something) and to get qualified you just have to donate at least $5 when you register for your free ticket to the event.
As a marketer, I think his marketing is brilliant. I’d be interested to see how much he raises using this tactic.
July 9th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Ron Paul was doing all the web 2.0 stuff before Obama, and has more meetup groups than all the rest of the candidates combined (this may not be true now but it was during the primaries). He would have been far better (IMO) for the technology front because history tells us that the best way for technology to grow is for the government to get out of the way and let the market work. The reason we are still stuck with dependence on foreign oil, and the reason we haven’t fully explored alternative energy, is because the govt. steps in and subsidizes oil companies, therefore pushing out the need for innovation. Obama, like Nixon and every other liberal democrat, is going to push for bigger government, more regulation, and more spending which will strip the people of their wealth and create a cradle-to-grave nanny state which we will all be dependent upon for living, which is exactly the way they want it. A good communist citizen never asks questions and gets everything they need from big brother.
July 9th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
@quakefiend: First off - Nixon was not a liberal democrat. He wasn’t even a democrat. Secondly, the reason we’re stuck with a dependence on foreign oil, is because oil companies have paid politicians and car manufacturers top dollar to keep it that way. It’s also a fact that more republicans have been bought off by oil companies than democrats. Can anyone say Haliburton? Next if Mccain gets in we’re looking at higher taxes for those who earn less than 200,000 a year. Why? Because the republicans believe that since there’s more people in the lower tax brackets, if you raise their taxes you will get more money from more people. They support business growth, and I frankly believe lobbying must die soon before America does. Lobbying = bribing. If you were to bribe a police officer you go to jail. Isn’t it worse to bribe the person actually making the laws? Seriously… Lastly, I’d like to say, my actual choice for candidate would’ve been Dennis Kucinich, because he believes in stricter restrictions on media outlets, he also is for universal healthcare(which good health should be a freedom everyone can enjoy)… He’d also help rid the country of the corrupt donation mechanism in washington, and reform campaign finance - not to mention get the troops out of iraq asap. I could go on- but I won’t..These are just my thoughts…