Dr. Alan Rosenblatt brought yet another stellar panel of experts together last week to discuss the online campaign strategies used during the 2008 presidential election for the monthly Internet Advocacy Roundtable. Panelists included:

• Jose Antonio Vargas, Washington Post
• Kim Hart, Washington Post
• Micah Sifry, techPresident.com
• Andrew Rasiej, techPresident.com
• Sarah Lai Stirland, Wired.com
• Michael Whitney, techPresident.com

Although everyone agrees that social networking tools were the heart of the Obama campaign, this discussion took a moment to reflect on why that was, beyond the mere availability. Sifry noted that having Obama as a “friend” on Facebook was the new bumper sticker. Rasiej pointed out that the success was because people could influence friends in a way that was more personalized than sending campaign literature, and Rosenblatt credited the power of the Internet as a marketing and branding tool.

The discussion went on to talk about whether these web-centric channels will continue to influence the government. The response was a unanimous  €˜yes.’ Noting Obama’s new type of relationship with the public and the public’s use of web channels, such as Twitter, to communicate, panelists agreed that the playing field has fundamentally changed. It’s just one more way broadband investment is bringing us together and moving our nation forward.

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