change.gov

Last night I listened in on a panel and was reminded again of the super use of Internet and social network technologies by the Obama team.

The New York Times reported that Obama met with Marc Andreesen at the San Francisco airport in February of 2007 to discuss how the Internet and social networks can be leveraged to communicate his message. It was the beginning of a well orchestrated campaign that leveraged these tools to not only communicate a message, but to build a brand, and to empower people to be part of the change they wanted to see. There was not a day that I did not refresh my Facebook feeds without seeing friends joining Obama groups or attending Obama events or communicating Obama messages in their status updates. It allowed us all to be part of the experience versus just voters. We felt a connection with the brand and we took a sense of ownership during the campaign. We adopted the message and not only became supporters but became evangelists by enlisting our friends to join in on Obama groups or to distribute/attend events or to communicate messages to their friends via their status updates. The result is now obvious and nearly two years after Obama's meeting with Andreesen, we are set to swear in a movement that we hope will indeed finally demonstrate a government of the people and for the people.

If the trends of the campaign continue, there is no doubt that the Obama administration will continue to leverage the power of the Internet to allow all residents to be a part of government on a daily basis. The launch of Change.gov, in addition to the current presence across social networks gives the administration a two-way communication with the American people (make that the world). If you visit Change.gov, you will notice something called the Citizen's Briefing Book. This is where people can stop in and share ideas with the Obama team and then it is opened up to the masses to vote the idea up or down (+1 or -1), very much like Digg. The ideas receiving the most votes will bubble up to the top and come to the attention of the administration. Interestingly, I just visited Change.gov and noticed that the idea with the most votes is Ending the Marijuana Prohibition with 72,310 votes. Hem, I wonder how the administration will respond to that one. While the discussion of ending marijuana prohibition might be political suicide in most cases, if truly over time the wisdom of the crowds points towards this as an issue that is important to a majority of Americans, the administration will have to have an answer in some capacity.

We are moving into an era where all our voices can be heard in government, and on January 20th when Obama is sworn into office, it is all of us who joined in on Obama groups, advertised Obama events, or wrote about Obama on our status updates that are also getting sworn in. For it is us through the power of the Internet that made this happen, and it will be us through the power of the Internet that will continue to participate in the administration. I Hope.