Blog #3

HOW the INTERNET is CHANGING EVERYTHING (or isn't)

So it goes without saying that without the Internet and legions of what my aunt refers to as "You damned college kids (who) don't know what you're getting us into," Barack Obama would not be President, he'd just be a senator from Illinois with a funny name and big ears.

But here in AMERICA 2.0^TM Obama is President and he owes no small debt to two things that helped put him into office.

1. George W. Bush
2. The internet.

Obama's campaign team used the Internet to take "grassroots" to its ultimate extreme: One person with a keyboard can argue for him. If one person gets three of his friends to take up the cause, and they get three of their friends, and so on and so forth, the movement grows exponentially.

No number of Grandmother-forwarded chain letters (BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA DOESN'T SAY THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE PRAY FOR OUR SOLDIERS THERE ARE ANGELS EVERYWHERE) can stand up to an exponential, one-at-a-time approach.

This is because people actually listen to their friends. Nobody really reads Grandma's emails.

Not to make this all about Obama. Let's bring George Stephanopoulos in on the party. Stephanopoulos (who is, incidentially, of Greek descent; I know! I was shocked too. His name in Greek: Γεώργιος Στεφανόπουλος) recently interviewed John McCain via Twitter.

Here's ABC News talking about it.:

"It's fun. It's the latest rage," [McCain staffer Brooke] Buchanan said, referring to Twitter.

That's right. John McCain's staff thinks the Internet is like Velcro shoes.

Anyway. The Greek.

"Oh yeah! Twitterview! We're breaking new ground here people, we're beyond the looking-glass, this is going to be the first step into a BRAVE NEW WORLD that sees the news media fully embrace a new technology that early adopters have already abandonded as passe and it's just going to be the best thing ever, there's no way that this can be seen by anybody as anything other than a giant leap forwar--



...


Yeah. Once again, a note for media dinosaurs and elderly presidential candidates alike: If you do not understand the Internet, hire someone who does.

THE POINT OF ALL THIS is that the Internet is not a fad that's going to blow over or a storm to be ridden out. The Internet is The Way The World Is Now. If you can harness it, you have a fighting chance. If you can't, you will fail. And if you decide to ignore it and hope it'll just go away, you really, really need a new job.