Obama wins the Internet vote for tech President

Davey Winder
Friday, 27 June 2008 04:05

Business IT - Networking

"What ideas" Obama asked "do you have to keep America competitive in the years ahead?"

Sure, call it a gimmick. Call it pandering to a new technology in order to grab a few extra votes. Call it what you will, but I call it rather clever. Not least because the answers Obama received were not the perhaps to be expected abusive kind, nor the fawning adoration of Obama fan boys either.

Instead, what has happened here is quite remarkable. What has happened here is that, on the whole, Obama has got thousands of considered and well written replies that address the question asked. Many of them run into several paragraphs and many hundred words. Many demonstrate why LinkedIn is so well respected amongst the business community who use it.

Before I go any further, perhaps I should point out that I am not a US citizen and cannot vote in the forthcoming Presidential election. I have no axe to grind when it comes to American politics. I do, however, have an interest in how the world's most powerful men make use of the technology I love so much.

So in the past I have watched the likes of Howard Dean and John Kerry campaign online. But now I am seeing someone, in Obama, who is not only campaigning online but doing really pretty good at it as well.

And I maintain it all comes down to understanding the value of social networking. In the case of campaign fund raising, very literally the value. Obama has managed to exploit the notion of raising very large amounts by asking people online for very small donations. And oh boy has it ever worked.

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