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Here is a list of Web services used in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election for hosting videos and photos and spreading the campaign through social networks.
Contents |
Primaries: The Democrats
The Democrats were unafraid to experiment. Edwards' campaign reached long and deep into the social networking craze; he made himself available on over a dozen networks, most of which were irrelevant to his campaign. All of the major candidates and some of the minor ones thoughtfully created social networks for their supporters to organize and discuss politics. But the most Internet-savvy campaign was really Chris Dodd, whose staff created the first ever candidate blog with interesting content, widely linked to and discussed elsewhere (the Debate Clock, which demonstrated with a simple graph how Dodd and other candidates got shafted by the moderators). Dodd also smartly utilized simple streaming video, which created a stir whenever it was posted ("Live Dodd speech!") and got people to watch his speeches.
Hillary Clinton
- Created
- Clinton created a mini-social network at connect.hillaryclinton.com, which gained minor success.
- Used
- Clinton held a minor contest on YouTube to choose a campaign theme song, but she clearly did not take the medium seriously. Flickr was used secondarily.
- Available on
- Facebook, MySpace, and Eons, a social network for seniors.
Barack Obama
- Created
- Obama created a Xoops-based social network at my.barackobama.com, which had moderate success.
- Used
- Obama's team used the campaign website for all videos and photos. YouTube and Flickr were used secondarily.
- Available on
- Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and PartyBuilder, the official DNC social network
John Edwards
- Created
- Edwards created a Plus Three-based social network at blog.johnedwards.com.
- Used
- Campaign website's videos were hosted on YouTube. Metacafe, Revver, Flickr, and Blip.tv were all used secondarily.
- Available on
- Facebook, MySpace, 43Things, TagWorld, del.icio.us, Essembly, PartyBuilder, Yahoo! 360°, CHBN, vSocial, CollectiveX, bebo, Care2, hi5, Xanga, and LiveJournal (phew!). None of these seem to have had any significant impact; Edwards' main base of support is on Daily Kos and other netroots blogs. Ning and Gather.com were used initially but later dropped.
Bill Richardson
- Created
- Richardson created a Xoops-based social network at action.richardsonforpresident.com, which had some success.
- Used
- Campaign website's videos were hosted on YouTube. Flickr was used secondarily.
- Available on
- Facebook, MySpace, and PartyBuilder.
Chris Dodd
- Created
- The interactive portion of Chris Dodd's website was sensibly centered around his campaign team's blog, on which supporters could comment.
- Used
- Dodd made heavy, sensible use of available Web 2.0 services rather than duplicating them on his own website. Initially, live video of speaking events was provided by UStream.tv and a chatroom by Meebo; after a couple of months UStream stepped in with a chatroom service as well (IRC, in cooperation with the WyldRyde network). Flickr was used secondarily.
- Available on
- Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Gather.com, Eons, and MyGrito, a Hispanic bilingual social network.
Dennis Kucinich
- Created
- Kucinich created a Xoops-based social network at action.dennis4president.com, which had a suprising amount of success, probably because his supporters are hippies with a lot of free time.
- Used
- Campaign website's videos were hosted on YouTube.
- Available on
- Facebook and MySpace.
Joe Biden
- Created
- Blog, with comments.
- Used
- Campaign media page was a direct link to YouTube. Flickr was used secondarily.
- Available on
- Facebook and MySpace.
Mike Gravel
- Created
- Originally, Gravel had a forum powered by Drupal. It seems this got out of control, so it was scaled back to a blog.
- Used
- Gravel's scaled-back website contained links to YouTube and Meetup.
- Available on
- Facebook, MySpace, Google Groups, Virb (some weird Web 2.0-ish network), ActBlue, DFA-Link (a project of Howard Dean's Democracy for America), and, strangest of all, Second Life.
Primaries: The Republicans
Among the Republicans Thompson was the only real tech-savvy one. Even Ron Paul, who amassed an infamous tidal wave of Internet support, made some slip-ups in his YouTube videos, such as laughably bad soundtracks and odes provided by his supporters. Other Republicans were almost inept in their lack of grasp of the netroots. Supporter networks were generally glorified mailing lists, and harsh criticism of Giuliani on the front page of the largest conservative site, FreeRepublic, went unanswered.
Thompson
- Created
- Thompson created a social network sort of site-- unknown backbone, no central URL, but you can see it on his front page.
- Used
- Blip.tv was used to host campaign material. Flickr and YouTube were used secondarily.
- Available on
- Facebook, MySpace, Eventful, del.icio.us, Twitter.
Giuliani
- Used
- Blip.tv was used to host campaign material. Flickr and YouTube were used secondarily.
- Available on
- Facebook, MySpace, Digg (?!?!), Gather.com, Eons, and LinkedIn.
McCain
- Created
- Something called "McCainSpace" which appeared to actually be a customizable fundraising page.
- Used
- Blip.tv was used to host campaign material, although unlike Giuliani and Thompson, McCain's videos were watermarked johnmccain.com and no link was provided back to blip.tv. YouTube was used secondarily.
- Available on
- Facebook, MySpace, Eventful, and a queer website called Huddlez.com which does not appear to be used for much else.
Romney
- Created
- Five Brothers (A "Blog") [confusion quotes are Romney's].
- Used
- Videos were hosted locally. YouTube and Flickr were used secondarily.
- Available on
- Facebook and MySpace.
Duncan Hunter
- Used
- Rather than a real social network, Hunter directed supporters to MyELeader.com, which appears to be a fundraising tracker. YouTube was used on the campaign website.
- Available on
- Facebook and MySpace.
Tancredo
- Used
- YouTube and Typepad were used on the campaign website.
- Available on
- Nothing publicly advertised; MySpace was created.
Brownback
- Used
- YouTube, Flickr were used secondarily.
- Available on
- "FaceBook" [sic] and MySpace.
Huckabee
- Used
- YouTube was used on the campaign website. Flickr was used secondarily.
- Available on
- Facebook, MySpace, and Eventful.
John Cox
- Available on
- MySpace
Ron Paul
- Used
- Streaming video was provided by justin.tv. Initially, campaign videos were hosted on Vimeo, but later they linked to popular videos on YouTube, where Paul had a lot of supporters. Flickr was used secondarily.
- Available on
- Facebook, MySpace, Eventful, and Meetup. Rather than creating their own Digg account the campaign linked to a Digg search showing the hundreds of favorable Ron Paul stories posted there.
Primaries: Third Parties and Independents
During the primary part of the election, none of the third party or independent candidates that I could find made use of Web services to any noticeable extent. However, an interesting social network popped up at http://www.u4prez.com/ that allowed anyone to run for President. Wow, no need for those messy FEC filings!
General election
Not happening yet! :)