The Presidential E-Campaign, 2008

The internet has become an interesting campaigning tool. So much so that a Politics Online Conference has been held every year since 2004 until now. Speakers from this year include representatives from Google, Microsoft Research, CNN and WashingtonPost.com, professors, bloggers, and founders and co-founders from all sorts of businesses and organizations, both web-based and not.

Michele Miller explains how the Edwards campaign is making the most of the internet's reach here. His site is connected to facebook, myspace, flickr and other social media sites that allow voters to view and comment on content. "Twitters," short messages sent out to Friends on a "Twitter List," make supporters feel like they are "in-the-know" regarding the campaign. An open blog gives voters the opportunity to post their own entries into it and become a part of the Edwards campaign. Michele comments that "[she doesn't] even know if John Edwards is [her] personal choice for president, but already feel[s] [she] know[s] him better than any of the other candidates." With personality being such an important part of the Presidency, at least in the eyes of the public, seeming like a close aquaintance of the voters must be a big advantage.

James Kotecki, a self-titled YouTube Consultant, searches the internet for politicians' videos and analyzes them for effectiveness in attracting the right audiences and sending the right messages. Short, topic specific, open videos and less general speech-making seem to be the order of the day for most politicians. Amusingly enough, Mister Kotecki talks about video campaigns in a video blog, with video comments and responses from a few of the politicians whose e-campaigns he has analyzed.