Last year I was on a panel at the Enterprise 2.0 conference titled: 90% People, 10% Technology. The premise being that many people say as they go to implement a new technology, Well, It’s really 90% People, 10% Technology.” Then they invest in the opposite ratio. My good friend, Valdis Krebs makes a similar point in his recent post, It's the networks, stupid, about how the Obama campaign is using the web. In the context of linking to an excellent NYT OpEd, The Obama Connection, he writes:
“…the Dean campaign thought they understood the internet in 2004, but they really did not get "social networks". They made some breakthroughs in technology, but screwed up the sociology, and lost in a big way. Obama seems to be focusing first on the sociology of building networks and then supporting those social networks with technology -- the correct sequence of attention. The Obama campaign is successful because they know that sociology & technology properly mixed give a better result than either of them alone, or improperly mixed.”
I have found it always makes sense to figure out the business problem and then apply the technology. This works whether it is the business of business or the business of political campaigns. I have already written a bit about Obama’s use of the web on this blog. In one post, How Barack Obama is Using Web and Enterprise 2.0 in the US Primary Campaign Through Central Desktop, I quoted commenter Rob Patterson (from the Fast version) who said, “Others say -”He has no experience” But isn’t the organization of his campaign a model for effectiveness and does it not show a brilliant insight into his understanding of the new reality? Imagine a Fortune 500 CEO with this approach and what they could do."
Here is a model for viral marketing for any web startup. There lessons to be learned for any business that wants to make better use of the web. The NYT piece seems to agree as it mentioned, “More than any other factor, it has been Barack Obama’s grasp of the central place of Internet-driven social networking that has propelled his campaign for the Democratic nomination into a seemingly unassailable lead…”
Valdis also shares a useful white paper in his post, Political Conversations, in which discusses the new social nature of voting.
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