Web 2.0 and Politics...more musings

I just read that Chris Hughes (creator of Facebook) has joined Obama's campaign team. Not that Obama's campaign needed more coaching in building community - he's already garnered double the number of campaign contributors than his closest Democratic rival. Agree with his politics or not, clearly he's a candidate whose campaign really understands the power of online community.

And now they have added Chris Hughes, who as founder of Facebook, clearly understands how communities can be built and grown over the Web. It will be very interesting to see what is in store.

To that end I have one idea... I've been writing recently about how Dell courageously introduced IdeaStorm - an open discussion with the online community about how to improve their products and services. If you're not familiar with IdeaStorm, click here. Dell invited interested parties (anyone) to suggest improvements. Participants can vote to promote or demote any proposed idea. They also promised to respond to the most popular ideas. So far, they've committed to take action on the most popular idea - which was to expand their offerings of Linux based PCs and laptops. This is already underway.

I bring this up, because the same idea could be a powerful way to further engage Obama support. What if Obama's team launched their own IdeaStorm? Can you imagine the power of unleashing the creativity of hundreds of thousands of people, engaging them in discussions about every major issue facing the country?

The campaign could then respond, by issuing position papers on the highest ranked suggestions or by having Obama issue a YouTube video, responding to the ideas - or both. I can't imagine any other tactic more engaging that allowing voters to interact directly with a candidate and one another. Besides the benefit of potentially surfacing ideas that might otherwise stay at our kitchen tables, it also reinforces the fundamental message that we all need to work on these problems together rather than falling into the trap of thinking and acting along traditional party lines.

This could potentially energize the voting public in a way that's never been done before. For Obama, it might offer a competitive advantage over the other candidates who seem to be struggling with Web2.0 - relying on the shifting tides of public opinion polls and recreating their images to better the outcome. What a great way to sidestep the interests of PACs and special interests and let the voice of the people be heard. What a terrific way to drive a constructive conversation on the issues that matter.