White House Web FAIL?
BY Patrick Ruffini | Friday, January 23 2009
A couple of days ago, I reviewed the launch of the new WhiteHouse.gov. Today, nearly 72 hours after Barack Obama's inauguration, the only official documents of the Obama Administration online are his inaugural address ... Read More
The Internet is TV. Twitter is the Internet.
BY Patrick Ruffini | Thursday, December 18 2008
I've been thinking a bit about the relative pecking order of new media since I posted on the relative second-tier status of Twitter last week. This thinking led me to blurt out the following on Twitter: Theory: The ... Read More
My.BarackObama.gov
BY Patrick Ruffini | Monday, November 17 2008
As Republicans debate how to rebuild the party with new technology and stronger grassroots, watch for the media to fawn all over Obama's use of the Internet as President as he brings (some) of the tactics of his winning ... Read More
Epic Text Message Fail? Media Gets Biden News Hours Before Supporters
BY Patrick Ruffini | Saturday, August 23 2008
Shortly after 3 AM on the east coast, the long-awaited text message from Barack Obama announcing Joe Biden had finally arrived. But it was something short of letting the cat out of the bag. At 10:50 pm on Friday night, ... Read More
Barack's Boring Website
BY Patrick Ruffini | Sunday, July 27 2008
The common wisdom is that BarackObama.com is not only better at wrangling donations from the faithful, but is categorically better than JohnMcCain.com because it embraces an interactive as opposed to a broadcast model. ... Read More
Microtargeting Myth vs. Fact
BY Patrick Ruffini | Friday, July 18 2008
There's a lot of hype surrounding microtargeting -- which is the process of targeting voters scientifically based on consumer and demographic data. This piece in Salon yesterday on "Obama's super marketing ... Read More
How Revolutionary is Obama's Anti-FISA Group?
BY Patrick Ruffini | Friday, July 4 2008
But this development is more properly seen as a natural evolution in any open, networked system that is allowed to operate in the political space. The credit belongs to his supporters, not Obama. It's now a truism that ... Read More
The Secret of My.BarackObama.com? eGroups!
BY Patrick Ruffini | Thursday, June 12 2008
My.BarackObama.com still works, and it's not because recreated the features of a social network. If they've succeeded, it's because they've harkened back to the early days of the web, to the primary way that the online ... Read More
How McCain's Website Can Beat Obama By Becoming a Platform
BY Patrick Ruffini | Saturday, June 7 2008
To get the most bang for its online buck, the McCain campaign should be the first political campaign in history to release a website API. Read More
John McCain: Tolstoy in My Inbox
BY Patrick Ruffini | Thursday, May 15 2008
Good online strategy is simple: reflect the very best of your candidate offline. John McCain offline is transparent, accessible, and willing to answer any question. John McCain online is stilted and awkwardly asking me ... Read More