I stayed awake all night waiting on an election result on the other side of the world and I was struck by one thing.
It wasn’t that the new President is the youngest since JFK or that he is the first black president. Nor also that his grandfather is from County Offaly (the Irish have, of course, claimed him – it had to happen!). Nor that acceptance speech that completely blew me away.
The thing that struck me more than anything was that Obama would have had no chance of getting anywhere close to the Big House without the internet.
Barack Obama refused federal funding for his campaign and so was left to ‘rough it’ with the world of small donations. This unchartered territory would have been pretty fruitless without the internet but with it, he raised $150 million in September and roughly the same again in October. Quite a bit more than Senator McCain who fought his whole campaign for less than $100 million.
But if all the internet did was raise money for Obama he still wouldn’t have made it and here’s the real trick.
The internet gave Obama a community, a family of people who all want to be part of the party. Obama and his team used this community to rally support, get people working together behind a common purpose and to get what was, let’s face it, the unlikely candidate into the most powerful position on the planet.
Even more than that, the new President Elect has now created a community tied to that common purpose. You could argue about what the purpose is but let’s say is about changing the world.
That’s a community of hundreds of thousands of people who all want to change things and their community doesn’t just end because they’ve achieved their first objectives. In many respects, they are probably just getting started.
President Obama now has a communication channel to a captive audience of people to help him deliver against what he said he’d do. And it’s two way. That audience gets to feedback to him on what else needs doing and how to go about doing it – in some respects that’s scary, but in others, it could just help him pull it off!
I love this proof of the power of the internet and Web 2.0. Tim Berners Lee, Robert Cailliau, Al Gore and anyone else who claims to have invented the web – you must be very proud
So the lesson learned is that communities that start from the grass roots are always the best ones and always stand the test of time. Reminds me of an e-learning community I heard of once.
Now I wonder what we could get Mary elected to? Suggestions on a donation email please!
Paul
Learning Pool's Blog 