Change.gov the website is so yesterday. Today, it's Change.gov the widget, iPhone app, and mobile tool.

We noted a few days ago that online home of the Obama-Biden Transition Project had swapped out traditional copyright for a far looser Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license -- one that invites users to have their way with the site's contents, as long as they give credit back to Obama. Now a new service called Cerado Ventana has packaged Change.gov in a way that makes it easier to interact with the site through other portals.

Obama's campaign released an iPhone application (thanks to an all-volunteer creative base). So how can McCain catch up and prove that his campaign has tech prowess? Release their version of the application on Google's Android platform for the T-Mobile G1.

Last April we told you about an effort by an independent filmmaker that aimed to organize Obama supporters to donate $1 million to the candidate in under 1 minute. (They ended up raising a respectable $245,000 in a couple minutes.)

Now the same effort is back with a new face. "An Obama Minute" aims to raise $1 million on Monday between 12:00 and 12:01 in the afternoon, helped along by an interactive billboard in Times Square (and accompanying widget).

This is an absolute first and frankly it's f---ing brilliant. The California Democratic Party has a giant electronic billboard up somewhere near a Los Angeles-area rally that Republican VP candidate is doing today that is displaying live text-message questions people are sending in. On top of that, the whole thing is streaming live back onto the web using UStream.tv. Check it out:

Today the Obama campaign announced it released the Obama '08 iPhone app, a free application for your iPhone or iPod Touch. The app is pitched as a "a great volunteering tool that lets you make a difference any time you want by talking to people you already know." It's a slick application, but is it useful 33 days from the election?

Update: I received word from the developers that this was an all-volunteer effort, which changes things. Read below.

After a long hiatus abroad and working on a new project, I came home this August to a barrage of inquires regarding the usage of mobile phones in this year's election. While I had been following all of the news enthusiastically, I had very limited access to my US text messaging abilities and thus could not take part in what has been going on first hand.

This does not mean that I do not have my thoughts which, as someone removed from the process for a while, I hope may be somewhat refreshing.

Little-noticed in all the hubbub about Obama's promise to announce his VP pick first by text-message is the news that his campaign has launched a full-blown mobile platform designed to work on most web-enabled phones. As far as I know, this is a first for a presidential campaign.

Mark Pesce, who closed out the second morning of plenary talks at PdF2008, has posted the text of his talk on "Hyperpolitics (American Sytle)." Dig in!

The mobile phone as political communication channel orbits around the simple use of text messages (SMS). Senator Clinton uses them. Senator Barack uses them. Let's talk about the next phase. What's the future strategy for reaching supporters on the mobile phone?

Barack Obama is the leading Democratic candidate with a clear mobile strategy.