It’s not surprising that it’s always the younger political candidates who utilize technology to lend their campaigns more power through economies of scale. New technologies like social networking and the iPhone are ripe for those candidates seeking to let their constituents to do the campaigning for them. Earlier this year, younger presidential candidates like John Edwards led the charge on Twitter, using the microblogging tool to reach out and update his followers from the campaign trail. Other candidates harnessed popular social networks like Facebook and, of course, YouTube.
While we continue to wonder what kind of iPhone app John McCain would be as he inserts himself into the bailout fiasco, leave it to the younger Barack Obama to release Obama ‘08, a free, viral iPhone application that lets Obama supporters stay in step with the campaign and even get involved at a local level. Perhaps it’s just the innate nature of younger people to be more in touch with the ways technology integrates into our lives, but it’s definitely the forward thinking candidates that seize opportunities like this to leverage the immense popularity of the iPhone and the App Store to their political gain.
The Obama ‘08 iPhone app “organizes and prioritizes your contacts by key battleground states, making it easy to reach out and make an impact quickly,” according to the software. This lets users of this app identify their contacts by geographic region so they can reach out to them when Obama support is needed in their state. The app tracks your calls so you know how many of your contacts you’ve already reached out to, but no personal or private information is stored or uploaded.
There is also a “Get Involved” feature that uses the iPhone’s GPS to locate and the user to display the closest campaign center and a list of local activities. The app also includes news, media, updates, issues, and way to make a monetary donation to the cause. At the bottom of the app a countdown appears, showing how many days left until election day ensuring a sense of urgency especially in these final days of this election.
Now before we get a flood of nasty email from McCain supporters, let us just say that we have nothing against older candidates. They naturally pack more life experience in their luggage, but we can’t help notice their inability to recognize campaign opportunities using new technologies. We’re just sayin’.
The Obama ‘08 iPhone application is available for free, only in the App Store.
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