I’ve posted before about the sheer awesome (yes, that’s a noun) that engulfs me every time I visit BarackObama.com. It is definitely one of the best websites of all time, regardless of your political views. But unfortunately, now when I visit it, I have a sort of eerie feeling. I don’t know entirely why, but obviously it has something to do with the election being over.

Not long ago, the Obama camp launched Change.gov, office of the president-elect. Its much more official looking, with a less vibrant color scheme and not as many cool features. Overall its just less exciting. Don’t get me wrong; Its still great, just a sad comparison. One woman I interviewed says, “I think its supposed to be more informational and less flashy.” I happen to agree. The new site serves a different purpose. Let me know what you think.

Here are some screenshots. Click to enlarge.

As many of you have noticed, the internet has played an extremely crucial part in the Barack Obama presidential campaign. Many people are even saying that if it weren’t for the internet, he wouldn’t have won! I happen to agree. The internet was their number one source of donations during this campaign. Not only was it a very accessible option for campaign donations, but it was a lightning fast communication tool, used to spread quite viral videos around the world. Because of the web, millions and millions more people became informed, and I think that this factor definitely decided this election.

Also, the Obama website and merchandise in general is INCREDIBLY WELL DESIGNED. I cannot stress enough how much I admire (and envy) the Obama graphics team. I, along with a majority of the tech community, agree that their work will be a standard and model in Web 2.0 design for years to come. And not only their design was amazing, but the campaign site’s ease-of-use was astonishing. My favorite feature happened to be the news ticker on the homepage. It had multiple tabs, which allowed more content to be displayed with less clutter. Another sweet feature was their ‘5 Things To Do’ pane, located on the right side of the page. It had links to set up various canvassing projects, like Make Calls, Knock On Doors, Email Friends, etc. It provided an easy outlet for their supporters to help out, therefore blowing John McCain out of the water!

Like Barack Obama once said, nothing can stand in the way of millions of voices calling for change. Everything can stand in the way of millions of robots calling for hate.

The rest of this post is via TechCrunch - http://tinyurl.com/6m2d5j

New York Magazine’s John Heilemann is leading a panel at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco this morning on “The Web and Politics.” Joining him is San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Arianna Huffington and Joe Trippi.

The session jumped right off with Heilemann saying the Internet played a disruptive role in the 2008 election in the same way television played a disruptive role in the 1960 election of John F. Kennedy to president. Neither medium was new in the respective elections, but both “came of age” and swung the election towards the winning candidate. Kennedy, in particular, used television ads extensively in his campaign to reach the American voters directly, and embraced simple things like makeup:

The televised debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon was probably the most decisive event for the election of 1960. The growth of TV as a new medium, and declined use of radio marked a significant change in how campaigns are ran today. For the TV appearence, Nixon refused to wear make-up and therefore appeared unshaven, tired and sweaty under the lights. Kennedy, however, did wear the make-up and so appeared cooler and more composed than Nixon. Kennedy, before the debate, returned tan and attractive from vacation. Not only did Kennedy appear to be better groomed, and handsome, his suit was navy popping off the grey back drop. Nixon’s suit was grey, blending in to the curtain behind him. With these factors combined, Among TV viewers agreed, Kennedy won the debate. Richard Nixon’s deep, strong, radio appealing voice won over all radio listeners, they agreed Nixon won the debate. Nixon entered the race ahead of Kennedy. Television as a new medium changed presidential elections from this point on, marking the election of 1960 significant. Radio voice failed to prevail over now “candidate centered” television campaigns.

Huffington says flat out that if it wasn’t for the Internet, Obama would not be president. Trippi notes that Obama’s YouTube spots gathered an aggregate of 14.5 million viewing hours. The Internet was used by candidate previously, he said, noting the Howard Dean campaign, but Obama really leveraged it fully with online video, blogging, social networking and fundraising.

The panelists also note how mainstream media tends to fail in politics, simply reporting on what each candidate says without saying who’s right or wrong. The blogosphere, they say (particularly Trippi and Huffington), tends to call out factual inaccuracies better than mainstream media.

Howard Dean showed that the Internet could be used to raise lots of money online, say the panelists. But Newsom says social networking is significantly more powerful and allows for the creation of much more meaningful connections between the candidate and voters. “I’m addicted to Facebook,” he said.

Newsom also notes that “every single thing a candidate says, and how he says it,” is available online for people to review and judge. And he questions whether candidates today are more authentic or less authentic now that they have to be “on” all the time.

One of my readers recently emailed me to congratulate our country for electing Barack Obama president. I thought that this would be a good opportunity for me to get in touch with my audience, i.e. promote my contact form, write more reader-inclusive posts, start polling, etc. This is what I wrote back:

Hi [name undisclosed],

All I can say is thank you! Here in Chicago we are SO happy that BARACK OBAMA is our next (best) PRESIDENT. We’re really, really thankful, too. We couldn’t have asked for a better outcome than this. Obama won by a landslide (kinda)! What was it, 350 to 130? I don’t know, something like that. But I wish everyone could have been here to celebrate. The whole city was ecstatic!

Thanks,
Spencer

Have a question, comment, or suggestion? Email me here by clicking this or this.

My friends [said with John McCain-esque voice], we as American citizens have now contributed to one of the most amazing events in our country’s history, and have made a ginormous step towards healing this nation. Some might be disappointed that their candidate hasn’t won, but I truly believe that Barack Obama will earn their support during his term and that everybody should wholeheartedly embrace the now-non-Senator Obama as our next president (Whoo!).

Personally, I was lucky enough to attend the event in Chicago’s Grant Park where Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech. The moment the jumbotron (really big TV screen) said “Barack Obama: President Elect” I, along with thousands of other people, was mystified by the news, and quite instinctively began jumping up and down with joy. Being a 21st century adolescent, I was also text messaging friends, one of which read, “Milisy.dimlin.oxidisox.oRItAll.DoNKbi.dog. WE DID IT.” Enough said.

I couldn’t bring myself to write anything about the event, other than my Facebook status: “Spencer is speechless :)”, until now, when my temporarily Obama-fied brain has come back on. So I thank you, as well as the millions of others out there, for helping me help you elect Barack Obama president of the United States of America!

During Wednesday’s debate, Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama brought up a new campaign front, video games. The issue was triggered after Bob Schieffer, debate moderator, asked the two Senators about their education policies. Obama’s response was, “Turn off the TV and put away the video games”. The statement was directed at irresponsible parents but was later interpreted by console-hugging children around the country as a threat. One child is reported to have said “Well I really hated it, but he said it, so even though I do hate it so much, um, well whatever.” Coincidentally, this was said while the child was engrossed in an intense Lego Batman Xbox 360 session.

As well as children, so-called “hip” parents abroad are protesting Obama’s new video game policy, while John McCain is (not surprisingly) yet to have responded to the issue. Despite negative impact, a Chicagoan mother’s response had an approving tone. “Yes! I’ve waited so long for this. Thank you, Barack Obama.”

What’s your opinion on this uprising issue?