Complexity and Social Networks Blog

« Vendor Driven Theory | Main | The deliberative presidency »

8 March 2008

The Machinery of Hope

There was a really interesting article in Rolling Stones on the Obama campaign, The Machinery of Hope (thanks go to Valdis Krebs to pointing it out to me). It highlights some of what I have discussed before-- the creation (top down) by the Obama campaign of an architecture to enable bottom up mobilization. Some excerpts, but I strongly recommend reading the entire article:

Over the past year, the Obama campaign has quietly worked to integrate the online technologies that fueled the rise of Howard Dean —as well as social-networking and video tools that didn't even exist in 2004 — with the kind of neighbor-to-neighbor movement-building that Obama learned as a young organizer on the streets of Chicago.

…

The meeting in San Marcos wasn't advertised in any traditional sense. Instead, the campaign posted the event on my.barackobama.com — its social-networking site affectionately known as "MyBo" — and e-mailed local residents who had donated to the campaign or surrendered their addresses as the price of admission to an Obama rally. And the volunteers who showed up won't be micromanaged…. They'll be able to call their own shots, from organizing local rallies to recruiting and training a crew of fellow Obama supporters to man their precincts on election day. To identify and mobilize Obama backers, they'll log on to the password-protected texasprecinctcaptains.com, download the phone numbers of targeted voters, make calls from their homes and upload the results to Austin headquarters. They'll also organize early-voting open houses — which will be publicized on MyBo — to boost turnout among core supporters. "Instead of hoping that your neighbors vote," Ukman tells them in an unintentional twist on the campaign's central theme, "you're going to take them to the polls."

…

Hildebrand actually flipped the equation, using the physical crowds Obama could draw to his rallies to bolster the campaign's e-mail list. In February and March of 2007, just after Obama announced his candidacy, the campaign set up huge rallies in cities from Los Angeles to Austin to Cleveland. In return for a ticket, supporters were asked only to provide their e-mail, zip code and telephone number

…

In Iowa, as many people under thirty caucused as did senior citizens. In every contest, the youth vote has at least doubled and often tripled previous records. Riemer is quick to point out that these successes aren't just the result of the campaign organizing young people but of young people organizing themselves.

Figueroa's goal is not to put supporters to work but to enable them to put themselves to work, without having to depend on the campaign for constant guidance. "We decided that we didn't want to train volunteers," he says. "We want to train organizers — folks who can fend for themselves."

To turn well-meaning students and nurses and social workers into self-sufficient organizers, the campaign has put nearly 7,000 supporters through an intensive, four-day seminar known as "Camp Obama."

…

A strategy that leans so heavily on the grass roots is not without risk. In February, right-wing blogs had a field day when a Fox News affiliate ran footage of a volunteer office in Houston decorated with a Che Guevara flag.

Posted by David Lazer at March 8, 2008 2:21 PM

.
• Business (3)
.
• Citizen Relationship Management (14)
.
• Commentary (5)
.
• Complexity (2)
.
• Current Trends (41)
.
• eGovernment (17)
.
• Events/Announcements (53)
.
• Innovation (12)
.
• Internet (14)
.
• Knowledge Sharing (17)
.
• Methodology (29)
.
• Networked Governance (15)
.
• Networks in political science (1)
.
• PNG Working Paper Series (6)
.
• Powerlaws (4)
.
• Reviews (2)
.
• Simulations (1)
.
• Small group networks (3)
.
• Small Worlds (2)
.
• SN in the news (61)
.
• Social Capital (3)
.
• Social Computing (10)
.
• Social Finance (1)
.
• Social Networking Platforms (9)
.
• Social Psychology (2)
.
• Social Software (23)
.
• Societal Networks (34)
.
• Technology (28)

Comments

Posted by: Miraj Patel at March 16, 2008 10:40 PM

Notification

Post a comment