Neomeme

I am incredibly excited about Barack Obama. Not because of his intelligence, integrity, or views- although I endorse him fully, this is not a political blog, but because his campaign is arguably the first presidential campaign ever to truly embrace the Internet, and not just the Internet- Web 2.0. Today, Obama posted a video preview of the announcement he will be making tomorrow, undoubtedly a presidential bid. The online flv video by itself is not terribly exciting- Hillary Clinton posts webcasts and will be launching a blog. Undoubtedly, campaign advisors are telling candiates that that there blog thing is mainstream enough to get votes, particularly young voters. But now, the Obama campaign has taken it to the next level. Here’s what he said:

“On Saturday, you’re going to be able to watch my announcement, live from Springfield, but more importantly, after the announcement is done, I hope that you use this website as a tool to organize your friends, your neighbors, and your networks. The website’s going to be set up so that you can build your own profile, form your own groups, plan your own events, take campaign fundraising into your own hands, so that we can collect small donations instead of having to rely on large campaign contributions. It’s also going to give you a chance to chronicle your campaign experience on your own blog. I hope you take advantage of all these tools…”

Obama sounds like the executive of any of a number of new Web 2.0 Silicon Valley startups! What he is describing, in fact, is nothing less than a complete social network, with features rivalling those of many social networks that are not attached to a political campaign. The Obama campaign is the first political group to overnight create an ad-hoc social network and use it for political action. Until now, mainstream social networks have largely been focused on connecting people and news- and that’s it. The Obama social network goes a step beyond that, to connect people with a single specific cause, and use those connections to drive political action. We live in an exciting time… a few years ago, it would have been unthinkable for a political candidate to create a video to be broadcast exclusively on the Internet. Even now, I am pleasantly surprised, nay pleasantly amazed that a political candidate is embracing the best of Web 2.0(which is not Ajax or flashy effects, but rather connecting people, ideas, and now actions in new and meaningful ways).