Like most of the rest of the world, I’ve been really interested in the US election this year. It’s been the most anticipated and tightly fought battles in my lifetime and I think it’s very cool to be an adult with so many American friends and family living in America at this time.
But the one thing I can’t get over is the impact of the web on this year’s election. So far we’ve seen
- The “Yes We Can” video on YouTube months ago
- Signed onto the Facebook groups in favour of Obama
- Checked out Obama’s flickr
- Read Marc Andreessen and Fred Wilson’s blog posts (among others) on the candidates and the policies
- Checking out Yahoo’s Political Dashboard
- Watched the debates on CNN online the day after the debates – and fact checking what the candidates said
- following the twitter broadcasts for the election
- watching clips of Matt Damon rip the potential VP
- and Saturday Night Live – my God Tina Fey looks like a double, surely she’d make a better veep candidate?
The bottom line is this election has been heavily impacted by the web, the information that those of us who live outside of the US – and in fact people who live in red and blue states – have access to is phenomenal and is likely to only grow. Also the access to data and opinions has also grown exponentially through the internet.
Even this late in the day we’re able to see new online tools come across online to help citizens and users make their decision – Obama’s just launched a tax calculator to combat the remarks that people will face hire taxes under an Obama administration, unreal. Freedom and information are totally empowering, I don’t think Obama could have come this far without the internet, can’t wait to see how this thing finishes.
