BlackGeekdom Science-Fiction from a Different Perspective

We have just elected the first African-American as President of the United States.  And this is my blog, so I can talk about it if I want to.  What is amazing to me as a geek is the fact that President-elect Obama took advantage of what we on the net call new media to not only raise an incredible amount of money and to increase the excite and participation of more young people in the electoral process.  Obama was not the first candidate to take advantage of new media.  Gov. Howard Dean saw the future of the role of the internet and that almost got him the nomination.  Ron Paul’s entire candidacy was driven by the web.  But President-elect Obama was the first candidate to not only use Myspace as a tool to reach people, but he also was all over Facebook.  He has the most twitter followers, a total of 112,000.  That’s more than the number 2 and 3 person combined. 

He also had his on podcast, at least until he was seriously involved in campaigning.  He even had his on social network on his campaign website.   People who joined moveon.org, or donated money were inundated with a barrage of emails and text message updates over the last year.  There was an iPhone application.  Will.I.Am. has over 12 million hits on his “Yes We Can” music video on Youtube.  There are nearly 2000 videos on Obama’s Youtube Channel.  Now you can even order a music cd commemorating his victory.  All this to say is that we have a President who understands new media. A President who knows more than just how to use “The Google,”  who knows how important the internet in this new age. He supports net neutrality.  He also talks about clean energy and how important technological advances are to energy independence.  If you want to know his technology platform you can read excerpts here. 

President-elect Obama has already shown us that the demographics of this country are changing.  He has shown us that our society is shifting in a new direction.  But what’s most important is that he understands that technology is not just something to entertain us, but it’s the key to the future.

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