Presidential candidate Barack Obama turned his site into a social network this weekend, hoping to create a venue for his supporters to connect. Obama is already leveraging social media using Facebook, MySpace and Flickr, but the addition of “My Barack Obama” seems smart: Obama is one brand that already has masses of offline support (like NASCAR or the Portland Trailblazers), and this will simply help to connect those people more effectively.

Surprisingly, it’s not totally lame: you can organize fundraising, create events, find Obama events near you, build a network of friends (that email invite system is crucial), send messages, join groups and write a blog about how you’re helping Obama, or how you feel about the Obama campaign. Groups are the way to connect to strangers on the network, since there doesn’t seem to be a browse feature (you can, however, search by name or zipcode). In many regards, it’s more like Facebook than MySpace or YouTube - simple, text-based and focused on connecting with people you know or those around you. But it also lacks the openness of hi5 or Piczo: self expression tools like embedding your own video clips from other sites, adding Slide.com slideshows and uploading lots of photos just don’t seem to be present. In other words: it’s Obama’s space, not yours.

It’s probably fair to say that the Democrats will benefit most from political campaigning on the web: the younger demographic on social networks tends to learn to the left, or so we’re told. Barack’s social network isn’t perfect - it lacks the ability to browse content and users in an open way, something that may be intentional, but which limits its usefulness. That said, it’s 100 times better than anything offering by Hillary Clinton or John Edwards. Barack is also more suited to the age of celebrity, wall-to-wall TV news and YouTube addiction: he’s more charismatic than the other candidates, and comes across better in video clips

By: Pete Cashmore


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