Barack Obama and Technology: A 21st Century President

History will remember President Obama as the first African-American president. He mobilized the largest movement of young voters the United States has seen, surprisingly, by connecting with them online. He joined every major social network, allowing 18 to 25-year-olds (and their younger teenage siblings) to identify with him personally. At a subconscious level, this indicated that Obama understood the youngest voting block and that his presidency would reflect our technological culture and economy.

Exhibit A

facebook.com/barackobama

(Click for full image)

Facebook is MySpace's successor, the web locale where high school and college students complain about school and make new friends. The messaging system acts as a second e-mail, while statuses inform friends of recent happenings in their lives. Links, videos, and pictures are swapped with ease. By joining Facebook, news of Obama's potential historic presidency quickly spread through college campuses and high schools.

Exhibit B

myspace.com/barackobama

Myspace's frustrating HTML layouts and comment spam (often linking to viruses) were its ultimate downfall. Facebook is more uniform, professional, and family-oriented. Obama still joined Myspace, however, reaching the demographic of younger people who have shied away from making Facebook profiles. Again, there's something fascinating about "friending" a politician who wants your vote--a digital handshake. It felt good to be one of his 5 million "fans" on Facebook and one of his 1 million friends on Myspace.

Exhibit C
twitter.com/barackobama

Twitter is the new kid on the block, filling the I-Want-Information-Now niche in the networking universe. Individuals from every metropolitan area in the country exchange links and succinct wit. With a strict 140-character limit on posts ("tweets"), the site provides the same status-update feature that is available on Myspace and Facebook. The speed that information, news, and irrelevant whining spreads is maxed out.

Obama currently has 1.8 million followers on Twitter.

Exhibit D

Free iTunes Podcasts (Link will open iTunes)

Again, this is fulfills an important niche. The iTunes store is a quick way to download music and videos legally. Podcasts are the next frontier of radio and are an underappreciated resource. Wikipedia's current definition:

"A podcast is a series of digital computer files, usually either digital audio or video, that is released periodically and made available for download by means of web syndication."

During the election, those looking to become familiar with Obama could watch and listen to town hall meetings and speeches he'd made. Ultimately, this brought the world a step closer to him and communicated his interest in being the candidate of an intelligent, well-informed electorate.

Exhibit E

BlackPlanet.com/Barack_Obama | MiGente.com/Barack_Obama | AsianAve.com/Barack_Obama

BlackPlanet, MiGente ("My People"), and AsianAve are for the black, hispanic, and asian communities, respectfully. Obama's presence on these sites brought him community-specific familiarity, representing him as a candidate that is empathetic to American minorities. This is where his campaign truly shined: he showed great concern for individual communities, not just the public as a whole. People who hadn't voted in decades stood in line for hours to vote.

What Next?
Flickr.com/Whitehouse

Seeing the Whitehouse "Photostream" on Flickr is a joy. Flickr is a community for aspiring and professional photographers to share ideas and display their work. In the coming month(s) the profile will reach its 1000th photo. The warmth that the photography brings to the Obamas is both vivid and surreal.

Looking Forward

January 20th, 2009, the Obama team made the decision that solidified Obama as the first true technologically-aware President of the Internet age.

YouTube.com/Whitehouse

YouTube is very popular around the world; a whitehouse "channel" can only bring us closer to the executive branch. Why not present politics as entertainment? Why not learn to like the political process? Why not enjoy the process? I see a generation of children identifying with their president as a person because of his presence online--the realization that politics are central to being human. Engaging young people in political discussion instills the values necessary for a sound, honest government in the future.

Check out BarackObama.com, too.