How Will Obama Now Use the Internet Army He Built? | Newsweek Enterprise - Technology

Free Speech by the Millions
Howard Fineman 9/12/2009 12:00:00 AM
Money talks. In Washington, it shouts. But the question is: do we have to let money jack itself into stadium-size loudspeakers? As I made my rounds in the capital the other day, I could hear the rustling of corporate cash everywhere I went.
All the President’s Tweets
N’Gai Croal 2/3/2009 12:00:00 AM
During the 2008 presidential race, one of the oft-cited feathers in the Obama campaign's cap was its Internet arm. From his unexpected win at the Iowa caucuses to his unprecedented field operation, the heart of the new president's machine was MyBarackObama.com. The brainchild of Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, the site allowed Obama supporters to register for information updates, plan events, become part of local groups, sign in at the site's virtual phone bank to make canvassing calls, and create individual fundraising pages. On top of that, his team took full advantage of existing social networking tools: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter. By the time Election Day rolled around, more than a million people had signed up at MyBarackObama.com, and nearly half of the record-breaking contributions to the campaign were donated in discrete amounts of $200 or less.
GLOBAL POWER ELITE
The Web Masters
Barrett Sheridan 12/22/2008 12:00:00 AM
Think of 2008 as the year the Internet got greedy. As the recession goes digital, it's no longer enough to have an easy-to-use social-networking site, or blog software that corners the market on 13-year-olds. Now, companies like Facebook and Twitter are betting their futures on the proposition that it's time to become a hub, a place from which all other Internet activities stem. In creating our list of the men and women leading the Web, we looked to those who've courted customers and held on: Hulu.com is keeping viewers glued to television without the TV set. Facebook's new Connect platform lets users monitor what their friends are doing online. InterActiveCorp (IAC) is defining what it means to invest and succeed online; the Daily Beast, Tina Brown's news aggregator, is a favorite of journalists and bloggers alike. Meanwhile, former IAC execs are climbing the Washington ranks. Here's who succeeded the most:
ONLINE
Ms. Popularity
Barrett Sheridan 12/10/2008 12:00:00 AM
Google serves up several billion search queries every single day, giving it incredible insight into what people are thinking and talking about. On Wednesday, the Internet giant released its year-end Zeitgeist report, which lists the most popular search terms of 2008 by country and topic. It also calculates the fastest risers and queries that have catapulted in popularity within the last year. Here's a rundown of the most interesting insights from this year's report.
INTERNATIONAL
No End of Free Trade
12/4/2008 12:00:00 AM
Early in 2008, Democratic congressional leaders put a hold on trade deals the Bush administration had negotiated with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. In the presidential campaign that played out the rest of the year, leading Democratic candidates and the party's ultimate winner, President-elect Barack Obama, pledged to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as part of an overall bid to restore "fair trade" principles to such deals, including greater labor and environmental protections. In the electoral season's final months, the country plunged into a financial crisis, by some indications further deepening the misgivings Americans were expressing about globalization and free trade. The mood has aroused concerns among some economists about a shift toward protectionism at a time when most economists say open markets are vital for economic revival. Some analysts, however, see an opportunity for trade advances in the new administration. They note the Democratic Party's support for the Doha multilateral trade round and say the new team of political leaders might be better positioned to reform trade policy and promote free trade.
CAMPAIGN 2008
The Big Picture
Jessica Ramirez 11/10/2008 12:00:00 AM
With more than 81 million unique viewers a month and 13 hours worth of video uploaded every minute, the Google-owned video-sharing site has become the go-to portal for all clips political during this presidential election. It's where candidates set up shop by creating their own YouTube channels to upload official campaign videos. It's also where fervent supporters flexed their online skills with viral hits like "I Got A Crush On Obama" and "Wassup 2008."