Echoing pundits and analysts on both sides of the aisle, let me say for the record that it remains to be seen if Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s 100,000+ online friends, followers, subscribers, and supporters from his LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and Twitter viral marketing campaigns actually go out and vote on Election Day.
But you know what? It doesn’t really matter if Obama’s followers vote.
Any American kid old enough to drive a car is using the internet and probably has a Facebook account, let alone a cellphone. Do you wanna guess how many of them are following Obama, whether on FB or through text messaging? They may know nothing about the man nor his platform (and they may not care to know that, either) but they know he’s online and accessible. The kids probably don’t even care Obama doesn’t respond. But he’s there.
And if the kids are noticing this, do you want to guess how many are telling their friends or their parents they are “following that guy who’s on the paper every day?”
Until recently, John McCain was noticeably absent. But, the Republican senator is David to Obama’s Goliath.
Unlike biblical times, though, McCain cannot beat Obama with technology. McCain is hopeless to try.
The blogosphere and twittersphere (and I’m not even talking about Facebook and other social networks) are talking about politics and technology – and the mainstream media is taking notice.
Is it any surprise to you that within days of each other in early September, Business Week published an article, “How Companies Use Twitter to Bolster Their Brands” and CIO Magazine published “Twitter for Business: Four Ways Companies Use Microblogging?”
Where does this lead us? Did you see Wednesday night’s debate?
During a pivotal moment, Obama said, “We are going to invest in information technology to eliminate bureaucracy and make the system more efficient.”
What I’m about to share with you is something you won’t hear on CNN or read in any morning papers.
Here’s what some Twitter users (stereotypically wage earners over the age of 25) wrote in 140 characters or less in the seconds after Obama’s statement. Including mine, of course:
It’s fair to guess that of the 2 million+ Twitter users worldwide, maybe 50%, maybe 10%, I have no idea what percent, watched the debate. But a significant chunk either did, or will see snippets over the next 24 hours. And then they will also tweet. Or add comments to Obama’s various viral campaign sites. Maybe people will message McCain, too.
Fact is people are talking and people online “get” information technology. Fact is Obama “gets” information technology. Fact is McCain, whether or not “he” gets it, isn’t saying it. His response to Obama’s IT reference was about medical health records, which he admitted the VA already does.
McCain is not with the times and the twittersphere hates him.
Where do you stand?
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Comments:
Ari Herzog is an online media strategist and Newburyport City Councilor-Elect.
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When he says “We are going to invest in information technology to eliminate bureaucracy and make the system more efficient.” What is left unsaid is mention of how his associates’ implementation of such an investment necessitates use of human implanted RFID. Can you say “Controversial!”
Obama may “Get” IT but he certainly does not get “it.” If the “Twitters” hate McCain they can stand in line behind the many who see in him the strength of character we need to lead us out of the mess we are in. To quote a friend “I would trade charisma for steadiness any day.” Obama may be a personality but it is his ’steadiness’ of character and judgement (actually lack of it) that scares me to death. “Twittersphere” it takes more than a few glib words to lead.
disconectar: I’m unclear what you mean. Do you imply an Obama Administration would set technology in motion to create cyborg life?
Jary: I don’t agree with your opinion but I thank you for sharing it. You’d enjoy a different article I edited for a group blog, Voices without Votes, about how Canadian and Sudanese bloggers are McCain supporters: Obamessiah, a Change in Faith, and Right-Wing Republicans.
I think everyone may be reading too much into that reference. What’s new about thinking you can use IT as a silver bullet to solve financial problems? I’m 100% for Obama, but in these debates, I haven’t really heard him say much of substance except for his call for us all to take up the challenge of energy independence.
I don’t recall the specific exchange you mention, but it sounds like McCain was thinking of HIPPA–the Clinton era legislation that now requires you to get these privacy notice things from your doctor. The law also required health providers to standardize their datasets to make portability of health records possible. The idea was that first we standardize the way the procedures are coded, then we can use IT to achieve huge costs savings by elminating all the paperwork and redundancy. Using IT in government was big even before Al Gore invented the Internet (couldn’t resist!).
Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, wikis, etc. ARE NOT IT. They are communication media and tools that I believe can be incredibly powerful to improve our governance. But, speaking as an IT person myself, we need to get beyond the idea that these things are techie tools. Otherwise, we will see boondoggle after boondoggle of insane situations where the government awards multi-million dollar contracts to technology companies to build websites. Again, there is long, long list of these failed projects in government such as the recent situation in Massachusetts where the state bought every state employee a copy of Oracle database software.
The future is stuff like how the city of Boston used Google maps to get cyclists to map their routes, then used that data to prioritize the best places to make bike lanes. That is not an investment in IT so much as the clever use of new ideas. You are absolutely right…certainly Obama is more likely to get that–but please don’t waste our money on IT projects believing that the technology is the solution. People and communication are the solution.
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I followed the twitter discussion about the debates using the Election 2008 bar at the top of the twitter web page. There were not as many McCain supporters as Obama ones but they are there and they are using Twitter. They seem to hate Obama as much as the Obama supporters hate McCain. If you only follow other Obama supporters then you will think that twitter users only like Obama but it isn’t true.
And for the record – I support Obama.
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Great post. I agree that Obama gets it and McCain does not.
I heard that McCain doesn’t even know how to open email. Of course, his campaign manager was quick to say, “Well, he can’t type because of his war injuries.” Yeah, right.
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