techPresident - Power to the Edge: Obama's California Field Operation from the Future - Comments

Everything 2.0

rickladd — Mon, 26 May 2008 11:48:23 -0400

Man! I'm sorry I didn't find this post until after I wrote my latest paper for a class in my Masters in Knowledge Management program at CSUN. There's Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, and Library 2.0 I've been studying - as well as working at applying in my own company, a very large international corporation - and now Democracy 2.0, which will inevitably lead (I'm hopeful) to Government 2.0.

I suspected this was happening, based on what I knew about Obama's campaign, but I hadn't given it much thought. It's good to know these concepts, which are decidedly more supportive of participation and a broader democracy, are being studied and used in more and more campaigns.

Regardless of the catch phrase (whatever 2.0), these concepts provide for a richer and far more egalitarian society than previously known anywhere. The power of the web as a platform for these type of applications, and far more useful ones to come, I believe is a major leap forward, the ramifications of which we can only imagine and which are only now vaguely hinted at.

Whatever we call it - the edge, the long tail, the people, the web is re-defining who can be reached and who can participate. Thanks.

thanks!

Dan Ancona — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 20:24:45 -0400

Re: Trafalgar Square, that was fixed in one version and slipped back in in the final. I don't have an edit account, but I'll ask for a fix.

Re: scaling at the bottom, that is the $100,000 question. I think it's possible, if only because while the numbers of people get smaller the farther down you go, the tasks get easier, too. I.e. it's not unheard of for a candidate to try to hit every single precinct for a small town city council race. It'd be trickier for a big city, but you'd also get more volunteers. It's really a question of using whatever volunteer energy you do have as efficiently as possible and encouraging them to engage more deeply. The web tools are only part of it, but they might be the first part.

The Battle of Trafalgar Square

Michael Turk — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:21:13 -0400

The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval battle named for the Spanish cape. Trafalgar Square was named after the battle.

outside of Presidentials?

Asa Hopkins — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:21:01 -0400

My big question/concern is how these technologies can be used effectively for local campaigns -- city council, the scrappy Congressional challenger, etc. When you're not starting with the star power (and budget) of Obama, how do you bootstrap yourself into a distributed system like you describe? A local campaign might have only a few hundred volunteers (and start with 10); do these technologies and strategies scale down? How about the costs, and voter data availability? In order for these changes to really have an effect on the way we practice politics, they have to work at all scales, not just at the top of the ticket.

Power to the Edge: Obama's California Field Operation from the Future

Dan Ancona — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 11:50:01 -0500

Through the tools that the Obama campaign has deployed and the choices they have made, they are deliberately and methodically building out this next version of our democracy - and nowhere have they done this more so than in California.