For the Facebook portion of my research, I decided to sign up for multiple Obama-related items to see how they did, or didn’t, interact with and influence one another. My list included the groups “Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack)” and “I endorse Barack Obama -- and I'm telling my friends!”, as well as applications like “Obama” (run by the campaign itself) and “Barack Obama Supporters” (built by an independent application developer). I also used Facebook’s relatively new “Fan” system to become a supporter of Barack Obama. After that, I let the lurking begin. Before I start participating in the conversation, I’d like to get a feel for exactly what the culture is like on both sites.
The first thing that you notice when you join Obama's groups and applications on Facebook is the sheer number of members that each one boasts. "One Million Strong" has over 400,000 members alone, while the more activist-oriented "Endorsement" group pulls over 40,000 of their own member. I'm sure these numbers overlap quite a bit, but they're still impressive.
Content-wise, each separate group appears to fulfill a separate function. "One Million Strong" is set up as a link clearinghouse; if you're looking for ways to donate, places to find news, or just a little more info about the candidate himself, this group is only too happy to send you on your merry way. This group also has the most active discussion forums of all the groups; there are currently over 15,000 Obama-related threads.
On the other end of the spectrum, the "Endorsement" group urges informed action instead of simply information by itself. From offering direct links to sponsored fundraising efforts, to providing template for creating your own door hangers and stickers, this group seems to be more grassroots-oriented than its other, bigger counterpart.
In terms of usefulness, the applications are a mixed bag. The "Obama" app is set up as an Obama news aggregator, updating continually with all of the Obama news that's fit to print. The others, however, seem fairly redundant. The "Supporters" group, built using the same template found on many second-rate TV show fan apps, is shoddy and unnecessary, and the Obama fan page rehashes much of the information found on all of the other sites. In the end, I think my focus will probably shift away from these last two pretty quickly, unless I'm given a compelling reason to pay attention.
Care2
It's safe to say that Care2 is an entirely different animal when it comes to social networking. While Facebook's activism and political opportunities are just a small part of the overall Facebook experience, Care2 operates under exactly the opposite ratios. If you're not politically (or rather, progressively) active on Care2, what's the point of joining?
Surprisingly, there are relatively few Obama groups to be found on Care2. When I did my initial search, the first result that came up was a group dedicated to advocating a Kucinich-Obama ticket in 2008. Clearly, this ain't your father's social network.
I finally settled on joining the two biggest Care2 Obama groups. In Obama's Care2 world, big is a relative term. The first, "Barack Obama for America in 2008", covers roughly the same territory as its Facebook counterparts, albeit in a smaller, stripped down setup, and has around 600 members. The other "Barack Obama for President", seems a bit more activist-oriented, and boasts a membership of around 100.
How interesting. On both sites, there are specific groups for information and activism. So far, I haven't seen the two go hand-in-hand. I wonder what that says about these communities?
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