How To Win In 2010

How to Win in 2010 “Thomas Jefferson used newspapers to win the presidency, F.D.R. used radio to change the way he governed, J.F.K. was the first president to understand television, and Howard Dean saw the value of the Web for raising money. But Senator Barack Obama understood that you could use the Web to… create a sense of connection and engagement, and dispense with the command and control method of governing to allow people to self-organize to do the work.” - Ranjit Mathoda There is a long precedent of using media to convey a message, organize a following, and raise money. As technology has progressed, those that have adapted more fluidly to changing media have been able to exploit new critical masses of people that may have once been isolated from political activism. President Obama is the latest and most profound example of this phenomenon, as he utilized online social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace to mobilize millions of volunteers and create a massive warchest significant enough to defeat both the Clinton machine and John McCain. He deviated from the political truism for the Democratic Party that unions, minorities, and Hollywood were the true keys to victory - though he by no means neglected them. The savvy political candidate in 2010 will try to emulate Obama's success, and find new ways to mobilize their constituency. To do so, a politician must find a way to circumvent the barriers of volunteerism. Traditionally, only a fraction of American's volunteer in any way - 73 percent are passive observers not involved in any specific organizations (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). The largest barrier for these non-participants is a lack of time; most individuals don't have a Saturday afternoon available to go help a cause. The social networking sites that Obama utilized allowed some of these time-strapped individuals to participate in activism within the confines of their typical Facebook experience - writing on friend's walls, posting articles or links, and even donating money. Users largely didn’t differentiate promoting Obama from posting their favorite YouTube video. Republican’s were wildly outmaneuvered on the web during the elections of 2008, but even the power of Facebook pales in comparison with the newest form of volunteerism that should be available for 2010. While some aspects of the time barrier were defeated by utilizing Facebook or Myspace, the volunteer’s actions were limited to the environment and capabilities of the social networking site. In the next election, that will no longer be the case. The newest evolution of volunteerism – the grassroots tool that will undoubtedly shape the next election – is the mobilization of crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing is the tasking of a problem to a large population, who individually each in turn contribute to the solution. The problem has been traditionally conveyed through a central location, perhaps the DNC website, to the intended viewers. However, only a small amount of those viewers will have the time or the necessary skill to work on that particular issue. Mobilized crowdsourcing, however, using the newest technology and innovations, has found an elegant way to break up a problem into smaller tasks, and distribute it to a targeted audience via the iPhone or Blackberry, both of which are prevalent in the most socially active age-groups. The task can then be completed within the interface of the phone.

The Extraordinaries, Co-Founded by Jacob Colker and Ben Rigby, are leading the charge in mobilized crowdsourcing. Their application, soon to be available as an application for the iPhone, provides volunteers with customized 20 minute tasks that match the volunteers skill set. Are you waiting in line at the DMV (I pity you) and happen to know a foreign language? A non-profit group in need of translation skills will be matched up with you, and you can affect social progress by translating the document within the interface of the iPhone. In comparison with the traditional, cumbersome and time-laden forms of volunteerism, the advantage of mobile crowdsourcing is undeniable. There are obvious political extensions of this technology – instead of getting a document to translate, a volunteer might receive a list of five names to cold-call in support of a given candidate, or, perhaps, a GPS location of a political rally close to them. The political party that exploits mobilized crowdsourcing most effectively will empower new constituents, and mobilize a new critical mass of volunteers. Not many people gave Barack Obama much of a chance against Hillary Clinton, but he exploited a previously unutilized demographic of volunteers on Facebook and Myspace that tipped the balance in his favor. The party that taps into this new group of mobile volunteers will gain a vast network of activists capable of accomplishing monumental tasks in the name of their cause. For those Republicans who were so outclassed on the web in 2008, this is a chance to catch up. For the Democrats, this is a chance to continue their internet dominance. The direction of the country may well depend on the outcome.