Armchair Activism vs. Web 2.0 Activism

Yesterday I received the email from the Obama campaign offering to text me when Obama announces a running mate. I didn't take them up on it, but I tried to imagine the various reactions across Obama's base. "No other campaign has done this before," the email said. No shit, David Plouffe. The Internet was new media four years ago, but now you've got mass exposure on YouTube, social networking built into the Obama website, and the capability to text message millions of supporters at once. What's more, you know that we only have cell phones (and the Internet on our cell phones) so we can be ridiculously on top of incoming information. There might be a distinction between new media and new new media, but it takes a specific age bracket to tell the difference. Is Obama trying to impress the twenty-something crowd by embracing teh Internets, or does he expect so many of his supporters to sign up for text alerts because we all agree it makes sense? Personally, I've been impressed if not frustrated at the sheer volume of David Plouffe emails I get, but that just might be because I wouldn't expect the Internet generation would be such a target market. But let's consider that expectation: Four years ago, courting the nerd vote meant asking people who [most Americans thought] never left home to 1)donate and 2)vote. This was work, and the nerds had better things to do. But now, we're seeing Obama play on our laziness, making it so very easy to donate money, and building a nice interface to boot. (Aside: I can't say I'd have made the second donation if barackobama.com was a shitty website.) Meanwhile, something tells me John McCain thinks the Internet is housed in a bunker in Colorado, along with the nukes.

Then you have denial of service attacks as a military strategy, which somehow was completely unsurprising.