As I mentioned in a previous post, Barack Obama has launched the first-of-its-kind campaign-based social network, My.BarackObama.com. I decided to sign up and try the new network out after his announcement on Saturday, but from what I’ve read, the server was overloaded. I tried again this morning, and I’ve decided to share my perspective on it.
Overall, the system seems to have a very well-built . Events, local groups, capabilities, and blogging platforms make for some very powerful features that hearken back to the Dean campaign.
The front end, however, isn’t all that intuitive. The interface and way the data is displayed seems overwhelming, and isn’t laid out in a way that seems logical to the mind. This should improve with time — the platform has just launched, and so just getting the back end done is impressive. It just needs a more appealing and more intuitive interface.
The platform itself is based off of the Democratic Party’s PartyBuilder, as you can see:
My assumption here, and please correct me if I’m wrong, is that this platform comes from Obama New Media Director Joe Rospars. Joe was previously the Internet Director at the Democratic National Committee, as well as a member of the Dean campaign staff in 2004, and a founding partner in BlueStateDigital, an impressive political new media firm that’s handled the Webb and Tester campaigns.
Overall, I think that the website is a great first step. Over 1,000 groups have been formed already, some better than others. While the UI and wrapper need to be worked on (for instance, the site should be its own page, not in a frame on the page. Excuse my crude language — I know frames don’t really exist anymore — what is it now?), there’s plenty of time to work out the kinks.
Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, My.BarackObama, My.Barack, 2008, social networks, Joe Rospars, BlueStateDigital
