Liberty Forged

Control of information is critical to the way we select our government and the way our government runs.   Internet technology will be the single most important disseminator of information in the 21^st century.

 

On-Line technology played a preeminent role in the election of 2008. With the emergence of social networks like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, America viewed the largest amount of online advertising for a political candidate ever witnessed.

 

According to the Center for Responsive Politics (www.opensecrets.org), Barack Obama and John McCain raised a combined total of $1,113,079,388.00 and spent a total of $1,062,895,257.00 during their campaigns. The breakdown of over one trillion dollars in contributions was noteworthy.   As the 2008 campaign progressed, Americans saw Obama's fund raising far exceed McCain's. The largest sums of contributions to Obama's campaign came from Education and the Technology industry. 

 

 

 Interestingly, a large number of Technology companies contributed to Obama's campaign. Perhaps with the anticipation of a Quid Pro Quo, Google and Microsoft contributed over $800,000 each to Obama. That certainly may have been the case with Microsoft. According to www.OpenSecrets.org Microsoft began lobbying and seeking political influence around 1998:

 

 

Only one major technology firm contributed to the McCain campaign; AT&T.

 

It is of note that Obama’s two major technology companies contributors, Microsoft and Google, ultimately control the majority of on-line advertising and search result capabilities across the web. Combined, they have the largest influence and control of on-line ad placement and marketing. 

 

When web technology is suppressed, another technology fills the void. Napster, the film industry, and the music business are prime example of filling this void. There is, however, a huge difference: Google or Microsoft are no small file sharing companies being run by a young generation of newcomers. 

   

Americans should view search engines as they view any news media outlet: NBC, MSNBC, CNN, FOX. Biased liberal and conservative leaning media are no strangers to confrontation with the American viewer. Search engines, in a large part, share the same biased views. 

 

Search engine technology hides behind a secret and ever changing algorithm.   And, because most people don’t understand search engine basics, they may become dupes for the advanced tools these companies are now platforming. Google and Microsoft are now more focused toward their client; a pay as you go model where only advertising of the highest bidders are shown.

 

In future political campaigns it should be mandatory that the American public is made aware of complete campaign fund breakdowns of technology companies. Search Engine companies should clarify what, in addition to monetary contributions, a campaign received; what “free” advertisements were included in their web based candidate coverage.

 

In the 2008 election, with aid from the Liberals online, the Obama message was plastered around the Internet; leaving the Conservative’s message in the "Internet dust". Whether Google or Microsoft attempted to control the search results or not, it is also clear that individual Democrats not only contributed computer expertise, but they opened their wallets – wide.  

 

According to the OpenSecrets.org website, the long term "Contributions in Computers and Technology Trends" clearly show a major push of contributions from the Democrats. Daily, Internet users were bombarded with images of Obama’s “Hope and Change” on their Facebook pages. Young generations of users who rarely watch main stream news outlets began making presidential voting decisions based on political ads showing up in their own online environments.

 

Where was that personal connection between the online community and John McCain? Few conservative efforts could actually penetrate the major push from the Democrats online. This is surely on of the main reason for the success of the Obama campaign.

 

 

 

It is imperative that conservatives learn the technology lessons of 2008. In the online arena conservatives are now seeing “message marketing” in opposition to President Obama’s massive government changes. 

 

With “the awakening of the sleeping giant” online, Social Networkers and Bloggers are growing daily. Feeling their rights and freedoms eroded, large numbers of concerned Americans are communicating with people of like mind, thanks to websites like Glenn Beck's 912 Project (www.912project.com), and Smart Girl Politics (www.smartgirlpolitics.ning.com).

 

The use of Social Networking is an unprecedented change in the way that the Internet has been used in the past. People of all ages, convinced they would never be online, are now embracing the Internet and Social Networking sites like never before. This political awareness online has been responsible for raising conservative awareness almost overnight. 

 

In addition to Social Networking and Bloggers writing about Obama’s so called "change", Twitter has become a major factor in making vast numbers of people aware of issues almost immediately.    Bloggers and Social Networkers are using Twitter to combine forces, passing along information in an effort to quickly inform people across the masses as soon as that information hits the online communities. With this use of Web Services and Plug-ins, Twitter has been able to allow Bloggers the ability to post links to articles that flow directly to other people within an instant. This means a small community in a social network can post an article online, post the link on Twitter and have the link sent to a huge number of followers. If just one of those followers judges the article "worthy", that person can then re-post it to others, creating a massive chain of traffic to a small article completely by-passing a search result on Google or Microsoft. A prime example of a grass roots online "community organization".

 

Even with all of these tools and rapid communication between concerned Americans, there are still roadblocks. There is a reason why certain news stories only make it to certain news stations and outlets. Search Engines also play a major role in the way information is distributed online. The American people are now starting to see that there is a strong biased online as well as within the traditional news organizations. People using Social Networking, Twitter, and Blogs are now bypassing Search Engines to look up their needed information through people that they trust. With the understanding of how information is distributed using Search Engines, there will be a major push online in this next election using all available resources, and you can be certain the competition will be fierce. As a result, it will be interesting to see how the contributions from the technology industry are spread out in the next election.

 

An additional area of concern is the re-introduction of the Fairness Doctrine. As conservative opposition to the current administration began using on-line Social Networks and began linking these networks to conservative talk radio, liberals suddenly became concerned about the spread of “false information”.    Was the push for the Fairness Doctrine made to halt leveraging in the future by news outlets and online communities? After all, there is a massive spike in conservative social media usage.

 

 

Search engines and the advertising that accompanies their results may be biased and could sway elections. Campaigns must associate themselves with experts in this field so that Conservatives can take advantage of what Liberals knew in 2008.

 

Conservative campaigns and conservative individuals should take every advantage of Blogging and Social Networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

 

Conservative campaigns should learn the lessons of seeking campaign contributions on-line. Study the graphs in this article. Two thousand eight changed everything.    

 

Without a doubt, individual Americans must educate themselves in the online realm no matter what their political affiliation. Get online. Instruct yourselves on current issues. Become part of the solution.  

 

There are free on-line tools available and are there for your use. The Internet provides amazing teaching tools that will help you become politically aware.