Wednesday, November 5th, 2008...3:19 pm
Obama, Democracy and the web.
I am not a specialist of politics. However, I think the victory of Barak Obama is amazing. Like, a majority of europeans, I think this man has the opportunity to balance his own country and the world… But that is not my point. Obama’s victory is also a victory for democracy (not only democrats) and for the web.
Very early Barak Obama’s team had a great intuition for their fundraising campaign : ask everyone a little would be more efficient than asking a lot to (happy) few. It seems obvious, now, two years ago, it was not. Two years ago, candidates running for president had to adapt their programs to financial powers interests. If they did not : no money, no media, no campaign, no chance. That was not really democratic.
Now, with social medias, you can raise money at 0 cost. Moreover you can touch million of people at zero cost. For the first time in fundraising history asking everyone a little is possible because the cost is free and the efficiency of the system is high. Now people may participate to the empowerment of their candidates. It sounds more democratic, doesn’t it?
Of course, that is not the full story, it is just a detail. But I think it is interesting to bring it up because it gives a meaning to all people who are working hard on social media. Social medias give power to people. We are pushing forward this beautiful idea that people have the right to handle their fate. M.Obama is the first one that embodies this change. To all my fellows entrepreneurs that are searching everyday how to improve social medias I would say : yes, we can…
5 Comments
November 5th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
people will be studying his campaign for years. it was a well-oiled machine that looked at the long term and just ignored the 24-hour news cycle. He brought in more than 3 million individual donors, the majority of which weren’t donating in $2300 blocks (the max allowed to a candidate).
November 5th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
I am sure this campaign is exceptionnal in many ways. I am dying to know how we will speak of it in ten years.
November 8th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
It was really exciting to see one more time how the web is social and how the web makes the world more social.
And I don’t think it is a one time phenomenon. In 2007, during the french election, we also had our “kind of Obama” who wanted to change everything: François Bayrou. He did a surprisingly score and won all internet polls before the election.
Internet is definitely the best media for running an election.
November 28th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
You said “Obama’s team had a great intuition for their fundraising campaign : ask everyone a little would be more efficient than asking a lot to (happy) few”
I’d like to point out that this “intuition” was borrowed from Howard Dean from last presidential race.
IMHO, it is a victory because for the first time, US elected a completely non-white for the highest office.
November 28th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
@londoner90 : I did not know about Howard, as I have said I am not a politic specialist.
I really agree on the fact that the main fact is that a “non-white” has been elected “for the highest office”.
But, that is not the idea of this blog to treat political issue, that is why I chose the web side of this event.
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