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Technology: the power behind the movement |
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Written by Karen Vick
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Tuesday, 11 November 2008 |
The Obama Campaign had to do two things: Raise Money and Reach People. That, they did in a record breaking effort. Either of which would not have happened without the power of technology.
It is very clear that the now President-Elect's goal was to skillfully use his experience as a community organizer on the streets of Chicago to mobilize an even broader community – the people of the United States of America. Over 3 million people donated to the Obama Campaign which raked in an estimated $659 million, of which a large percentage was donated via the web in an average $100 per donation.
Starting out with not much money and support, Obama built an intricate technical architecture that provided a simple, easy to use system to everyone who was interested in this notion of Change.
The BarackObama.com website launched on the day Sen. Obama announced his candidacy for the Presidency. Jascha Franklin-Hodge, the Chief Technology Officer of Blue State Digital the developers behind the campaign website, described the results as a "coordination and integration between technology and organization" (Technologyreview.com).
Franklin-Hodge said that solely through the use of the web tools, over three million calls were made to "get out the vote" in the last four days leading up to the election; tens of millions of emails were sent to registered voters; millions of text messages and executed over 20,000 online events manned by volunteers who worked in fully staffed shifts.
In addition to the BarackObama.com website, other tools were used in the massive voter registration drive, early voting push and get out the vote drive on Election Day. Facebook, Myspace, several blogs like votervirgin.com and even the iPhone were only a few of the tools Obama supporters used.
The key to all this use of technology was the fact that millions and millions of people – young and old – were participating. Everyone including myself was bitten by the Obama bug, and he made it easy for us to participate and feel like we were a part of something bigger than ourselves.
Technology is fantastic but if there was no motivation and encouragement from Obama then it would have all been in vain as was evident by the McCain campaign, who despite not having such an elaborate system, did not make use of what they had at their disposal. Online videos, blogs, photo galleries and cell phone ring-tones made from a mix of Obama speeches were used to keep supporters "jazzed" up.
The resounding win has been attributed to this massive grass-roots effort supported by technology and has also proven that Obama's vision for a future with an increase in the teaching and the use of technology as is outlined in his Technology Plan, is one way to decrease the gap between the United States and the rest of the world in this area.
This self-described "techy" is proud to have been a part of this and would hope that small businesses will take a page from this use of technology and make a commitment to educate themselves on how technology can help them reach target audiences near and far.
Karen Vick a graphic and web designer and is the owner of Island Design Studio Inc., www.islanddesignstudio.com. Email: contactislanddesignstudio.com
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