Utilizing Web Technologies for Political Innovation

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Using web innovations for campaigns;

1 Summary
2 Origins:
3 Using the Web to win a historic Election
4 Downfall of politics in the web
5 Sources:

Summary

Politics, like businesses have been evolving their campaign strategies and incorporating the same web technologies that the rest of the world is catching on to. Using these tools they not only tap into resources unable to before but they also provide a means of communication and fundraising that is not possible and other way.

Origins:

“It was Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, who first exploited the fundraising potential of the Internet. Back in the days before Facebook and YouTube, Dean pioneered techniques of online political campaigning that has since been adopted by all the 2008 candidates with varying degrees of success. During the 2004 race, Dean’s loyal band of online volunteers – dubbed “Deaniacs” – mobilized young voters for the first time in cyber and real- meetings, online forums and fundraisers.”

Using the Web to win a historic Election

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama swept campaign records with his spectacularly wired political campaign that turned into a template for political candidates from Afghanistan to Israel. Using some of the best brains in the business, the Obama 2008 campaign unleashed legions of cyber-savvy supporters wielding an arsenal of social networking sites, user-generated videos, blogs and cyber fund-raisers to get their man into the White House. “Obama’s online fundraising (was) the stuff of cyber legends. While Clinton’s record fundraising has come from a few, big donors, the Illinois senator’s funds have rolled in from hundreds of thousands of small donors. In the first quarter of 2007 alone, Obama raised at least $25 million, mostly from online donors.

Downfall of politics in the web

Some worry that the usefulness of the internet can lead to it’s downfall because of the possibility of a dictorial takeover by the government whenever necessary. One proposed bill would allow the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "non-governmental" computer networks and do what's necessary to respond to the threat.

The power of the internet may someday be completely in our governments hand. “Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China is conducted under a wide variety of laws and administrative regulations. In accordance with these laws, more than sixty Internet regulations have been made by the People's Republic of China (PRC) government, and censorship systems are vigorously implemented by provincial branches of state-owned ISPs, business companies, and organizations”