Yes, we can.

[Morrigoon]

The brilliance of Obama's Veep-announcement-by-text has just struck me. Forget all the other plebeians subscribing to the announcement, the real benefit comes from the threat of the average Joe "scooping" the media, therefore forcing the media to also subscribe to his updates, giving him several days of feeding his appearance dates directly to the necessary parties to ensure coverage (not that he needed *that* much help, but it's still smart as all heck).

[Tenigma]

Originally Posted by Morrigoon

The brilliance of Obama's Veep-announcement-by-text has just struck me. Forget all the other plebeians subscribing to the announcement, the real benefit comes from the threat of the average Joe "scooping" the media, therefore forcing the media to also subscribe to his updates, giving him several days of feeding his appearance dates directly to the necessary parties to ensure coverage (not that he needed *that* much help, but it's still smart as all heck).

Mmm that, and also that this gave him a huge jump in subscribers. The thing is, these are people's cell phones, and most people don't give up their cell phone numbers easily. Now his campaign has millions (presumably; if not hundreds of thousands) of interested potential voters. By geographical location based on area code. He can send out directed text messages rolling up to and on election day to remind people to vote, and to get the word out to tell their friends to vote.

The way the campaign has embraced technology has been terrific. The other day, I got a text message (after I'd subscribed for his VP announcement) letting me know that the Obama Web site is now fully mobile compatible, and the text included a link. I was able to just select it and have my phone go to his mobile site, where for no charge, I was able to download a wallpaper for my phone. Now it has a little Obama logo as its wallpaper.

How cool is that?