Netroots Nation Nuggets from NARAL: DNC, Obama campaign, and social networking

Online Organizers Chris Hughes and Judith Freeman are leading a seminar right now on how the campaign uses social networking tools to spread Barack's message of change and to bolster our field program on the local level.

Chris and Judith talked about the utility of my.barackobama.com and its capacity for spreading information and connecting with voters.  They also discussed how the campaign has used external social networks such as MySpace, Facebook, and BlackPlanet and organize in neighborhoods across the country by communicating through Facebook groups, etc.

So true. Everyone knows how impressive the Obama campaign has been with their online operation, and the social networking portion is no joke either. So it was great to hear from Chris and Judith.

A key point I took away from the session? Fancy technology is great and wonderful, especially when you can use it to bring people together... BUT! The most important thing to keep in mind is the focus on building the community and not continuously obsessing over how flashy it all looks. Sounds obvious, but with new technology breaking practically every day, it's important to keep this in mind.

Finally, to end on a pro-choice note, I'd like to report that the buttons we gave away in the official Netroots Nation registration bags, "Vote Pro-Choice" and "I <3 Pro-Choice Boys/Girls," are going over quite well. As always, I wish I brought more with me. Oh well.

In other words, campaigns don't have to dive right into the deep end -- sometimes a dipping a toe or two into the pool of Facebook and MySpace fans will be enough.