Info 202 F12

In our second lecture, Professor Glushko mentioned that modern information systems have evolved a great deal from the days of stone slabs and cuneiform. He added that the social nature of today's web services enables "continuous aggregation of information, crowd sourcing, and community generated content." In my quest to find out how these new web services are actually used, I stumbled upon an article in the National Journal called, "Is Facebook Yesterday's News in the Presidential Race?" (http://www.nationaljournal.com/daily/can-facebook-get-out-the-vote--2012...)

This article talks about Obama's likeability on Facebook, and Mitt Romney's lack of followers; asking, "whether or not [Facebook's] numbers even matter [anymore]." The writer talks about how newer technologies have connected the Obama campaign. For example, everyone from grassroots volunteers to digital strategists can communicate and share valuable information on Obama's new platform: Dashboard; which is a social network in its own right. Dashboard increases efficiency by using smartphones to input survey responses as well as providing information about potential voters to Obama's campaign workers. All this information can be accessed and updated with mobile devices. It is sort of a "voter library" compiled by campaign workers. This information can be curated and edited by any of the Dashboard users on a variety of systems and platforms.

Why is Dashboard important? Leveraging these technologies has made campaigning much easier for the Obama campaign. It has given them information so they can be more efficient, also endearing younger voters in swing states to vote for Obama because he "understands" them better. In 2008, Facebook was just becoming popular, so people were more excited about connecting to their presidential favorites. Will it be as vital to this year's race, especially when those voters have already seen the outcome of their support? Only time will tell.