Obama – the first Net president (1)
It is widely accepted that Barack Obama has made cleverer and more extensive use of the Internet than any previous politician in any country. This should not stop once he enters the Oval Office.
Obama was fighting not just to win an election but to change a nation and ultimately change the world. This requires more than legislation and government initiatives; it needs a grass-roots movement.
Obama has the contact details of over 3 million who donated to his campaign and over 10 million who expressed support for it. If he mobilises these people as president, then his occupancy of the White house could be truly transformational.
The Net will play a big part – as explained in this article – but, as in the election campaign so in his presidential term, the real force of his advocacy is not virtual but actual, not e-mails in cyberspace but activists in local communities.