SOCIAL WEB MEDIA

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SOCIAL WEB MEDIA

• LECTURE FOR JANUARY 20, 2009
• THE POLITICAL PROCESS
• THE NETWORK

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SOCIAL WEB MEDIA
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SOCIAL WEB MEDIA

• McCain gets BarackRoll'd http//www.youtube.com/
  watch?v_TiQCJXpbKg

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SOCIAL WEB MEDIA

• McCain gets BarackRoll'd http//www.youtube.com/
  watch?v_TiQCJXpbKg
• amateur/pro
• homemade/pop
• mash-ups
• viral

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SOCIAL WEB MEDIA

• One of my fundamental beliefs from my days as a
  community organizer is that real change comes
  from the bottom up and theres no more powerful
  tool for grass-roots organizing than the
  Internet.
• Obama qtd. in The Facebooker Who Friended Obama
  NY Times 7/7/08

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SOCIAL WEB MEDIA
Barack Obamas Summary I am running for the
Presidency of the United States of America, but
this campaign can't only be about me. It must be
about us - it must be about what we can do
together. This campaign must be the occasion, the
vehicle, of your hopes and your dreams. It will
take your time, your energy, and your ideas to
push us forward when we're doing right and to let
us know when we're not. This campaign has to be
about reclaiming the meaning of citizenship,
restoring our sense of common purpose, and
realizing that few obstacles can withstand the
power of millions of voices calling for change.
(from Obama's LikedIn profile - bolding added
to text to emphasize network rhetoric)?
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SOCIAL WEB MEDIA
Image Rand Corporation
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• Obama used social networking tools to
• raise money
• organize locally
• fight smear campaigns
• get out the vote
• Electoral triumph built on a Web revolution
• - David Carr (International Herald Tribune, Nov.
  10, 2008)?

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• Obama campaign created and maintained profiles in
  15 social networking media services

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• Obama campaign created and maintained profiles in
  15 social networking media services
• ... including BlackPlanet, a MySpace for African
  Americans, and Eons, a Facebook for baby boomers.
• Obama Raised Half a Billion Online - Jose
  Antonio Vargas
• http//voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/11
  /20/obama_raised_half_a_billion_on.html
• also used
• facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn,
  Digg, MyBarackObama

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• 2 million MyBarackObama profiles
• 5 million supporters through other services/sites
• Obama Raised Half a Billion Online - Jose
  Antonio Vargas
• http//voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/11
  /20/obama_raised_half_a_billion_on.html

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• "... a network of supporters who used a
  distributed model of phone banking to organize
  and get out the vote, helped raise a
  record-breaking 600 million, and created all
  manner of media that was viewed millions of
  times. It was an online movement that begat
  offline behavior, including producing youth voter
  turnout that may have supplied the margin of
  victory."
• Electoral triumph built on a Web revolution
• - David Carr (International Herald Tribune, Nov.
  10, 2008)?

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• Sign up online for a time slot at local phone
  bank.
• Special site Fight the Smears
  http//www.fightthesmears.com
• "People can upload their address books and easily
  send fact-based emails to their friends and
  family."
• Tommy Veitor, Obama campaign qtd. In Obama hits
  back at Internet slanders
• iPhone application
• call friends in swing states
• get clear facts (talking points?)?

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• FUNDRAISING
• Howard Dean ran for Democratic nomination in 2004
  Internet politcial fundraising.

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• FUNDRAISING
• Obama campaign
• 3 million donors made a total of 6.5 million
  donations online
• more than 500 million...
• Of those 6.5 million donations, 6 million were in
  increments of 100 or less. The average online
  donation was 80, and the average Obama donor
  gave more than once.
• Obama Raised Half a Billion Online - Jose
  Antonio Vargas
• http//voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/11
  /20/obama_raised_half_a_billion_on.html

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• FUNDRAISING
• After Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin dismissed the value
  of community organizing in her acceptance speech
  at the Republican National Convention on Sept. 3
  -- "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a
  community organizer, except that you have actual
  responsibilities," she said to applause -- Obama
  raised 10 million within 24 hours.
• Obama Raised Half a Billion Online - Jose
  Antonio Vargas
• http//voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/11
  /20/obama_raised_half_a_billion_on.html

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• COMMUNICATION
• Obama's e-mail list upwards of 13 million
  addresses.
• ...aides sent more than 7,000 different messages,
  many of them targeted to specific donation levels
  (...less than 200, for example, or those who
  gave more than 1,000).
• In total, more than 1 billion e-mails landed in
  inboxes.
• (2004 Sen. John F. Kerry had 3 million
  e-addresses on his list former Vermont governor
  Howard Dean had 600,000.)?
• Obama Raised Half a Billion Online - Jose
  Antonio Vargas
• http//voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/11
  /20/obama_raised_half_a_billion_on.html

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• COMMUNICATION
• A million people signed up for Obama's
  text-messaging program.
• Supporters on average received five to 20 text
  messages per month, depending on where they lived
  -- the program was divided by states, regions,
  zip codes and colleges -- and what kind of
  messages they had opted to receive.
• MyBarackObama.com - 2 million profiles
  created.
• Obama Raised Half a Billion Online - Jose
  Antonio Vargas
• http//voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/11
  /20/obama_raised_half_a_billion_on.html

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• COMMUNICATION
• In addition, 200,000 offline events were
  planned, about 400,000 blog posts were written
  and more than 35,000 volunteer groups were
  created -- at least 1,000 of them on Feb. 10,
  2007, the day Obama announced his candidacy. Some
  3 million calls were made in the final four days
  of the campaign using MyBO's virtual
  phone-banking platform.
• Obama Raised Half a Billion Online - Jose
  Antonio Vargas
• http//voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/11
  /20/obama_raised_half_a_billion_on.html

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• GET OUT THE VOTE
• On Facebook's Election 2008 page ... more than
  5.4 million users clicked on an "I Voted" button
  to let their Facebook friends know that they made
  it to the polls. (Talk about online peer
  pressure.)
• Obama Raised Half a Billion Online - Jose
  Antonio Vargas
• http//voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/11
  /20/obama_raised_half_a_billion_on.html

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• HOW?
• 13 up to 30 staffers
• Obama Raised Half a Billion Online - Jose
  Antonio Vargas
• http//voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/11
  /20/obama_raised_half_a_billion_on.html

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• HOW?
• Attention to analytics
• analytics team
• watching stats what ads get response, etc
• tuning and tweaking as needed in a 24-hour
  online cycle.
• Obama Raised Half a Billion Online - Jose
  Antonio Vargas
• http//voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/11
  /20/obama_raised_half_a_billion_on.html

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• Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Fireside Chats
• radio addresses 1933-1944

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• "Thomas Jefferson used newspapers to win the
  presidency, FDR used radio to change the way he
  governed, JFK was the first president to
  understand television, and Howard Dean saw the
  value of the Web for raising money," - Ranjit
  Mathoda
• Electoral triumph built on a Web revolution
• - David Carr (International Herald Tribune, Nov.
  10, 2008)?

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• "...Obama understood that you could use the Web
  to lower the cost of building a political brand,
  create a sense of connection and engagement, and
  dispense with the command-and-control method of
  governing to allow people to self-organize to do
  the work." - Ranjit Mathoda
• Electoral triumph built on a Web revolution
• - David Carr (International Herald Tribune, Nov.
  10, 2008)?

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• "...Obama understood that you could use the Web
  to lower the cost of building a political brand,
  create a sense of connection and engagement, and
  dispense with the command-and-control method of
  governing to allow people to self-organize to do
  the work." - Ranjit Mathoda
• Electoral triumph built on a Web revolution
• - David Carr (International Herald Tribune, Nov.
  10, 2008)?

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questions/implications
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questions/implications

• "...when he arrives at the White House, Obama
  will have not just a political base, but a
  database, millions of names of supporters who can
  be engaged almost instantly. And there's every
  reason to believe that he will use the network
  not just to campaign, but to govern."
• Electoral triumph built on a Web revolution
• - David Carr (International Herald Tribune, Nov.
  10, 2008)?

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questions/implications

• On 1/17/09 Obama announced
• "ORGANIZING FOR AMERICA"
• http//my.barackobama.com/page/invite/thefuture
• based on campaign organization

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questions/implications

• What does such an organization mean for the party
  system?
• Electoral triumph built on a Web revolution
• - David Carr (International Herald Tribune, Nov.
  10, 2008)?

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questions/implications

• What does such an organization mean for the party
  system?
• "Political parties supply brand, ground troops,
  money and relationships, all things that Obama
  already owns."
• Electoral triumph built on a Web revolution
• - David Carr (International Herald Tribune, Nov.
  10, 2008)?

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questions/implications

• ...the fundamental premise was to help put the
  political process into people's own hands. -
  Chris Hughes, Obama campaign online team
• (Hughes is a co-founder of Facebook)?
• Obama Raised Half a Billion Online - Jose
  Antonio Vargas
• http//voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/11
  /20/obama_raised_half_a_billion_on.html

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questions/implications

• The founders of America wanted a government that
  reflected its citizens but would be at remove
  from the baser impulses of the mob. The mob,
  flush with victory, is at hand, but instead of
  pitchforks and lanterns they have broadband and
  YouTube.
• Electoral triumph built on a Web revolution
• - David Carr (International Herald Tribune, Nov.
  10, 2008)?

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questions/implications

• Like every other presidency, the Obama
  administration will have its battles with the
  media, but that may seem like patty-cake if it
  runs afoul of the self-publishing,
  self-organizing democracy it helped create - say,
  by delaying health care legislation or breaking a
  promise on taxes.
• Electoral triumph built on a Web revolution
• - David Carr (International Herald Tribune, Nov.
  10, 2008)?

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questions/implications

• A 2-way Street?
• "Senator Obama -- Please, No Telecom Immunity and
  Get FISA Right." group formed on myBO in late
  June, 2008.

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questions/implications

• Telecom Immunity
• He originally opposed efforts to include any
  legal immunity, especially retroactive immunity,
  for government officials and telecommunications
  firms alleged to have taken part in the Bush
  administration's warrantless eavesdropping
  programt ...100 However, on June 20, 2008,
  Obama issued a statement saying that he would
  support the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 passed
  the previous week by the House of
  Representatives, although he would attempt to
  have a retroactive immunity provision included in
  the bill removed before it came to a Senate floor
  vote.101 ... Obama voted for an amendment to
  strip retroactive immunity from the bill, but the
  amendment failed to pass.103 On July 9, he
  voted for the entire FISA amendments bill which
  still included retroactive immunity.104
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_o
  f_Barack_Obama

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questions/implications

• By last night there were 7,000 members. At noon
  today there were 11435, just short of making it
  the largest group on the MyBarackObama site.
•  Reality Time at MyBarackObama.com - Huffington
  Post - July 2, 2008

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questions/implications

• Comments on Obama profile at eventful.com

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SOCIAL WEB MEDIA
Image Rand Corporation