Technology was the driver, Obama campaign manager

Technology was the driver, Obama campaign manager

He's credited as the mastermind of the most successful U.S. presidential campaign in recent history.

David Plouffe, who was reportedly in charge of the Obama campaign's moving parts - media, staff, fundraising and travel - is not part of the presidential transition team, nor is he expected to join the incoming administration.

Plouffe laid out some of the campaign successes during Tuesday's speech that at times seemed aimed almost entirely at political junkies. He credited that success to technology and the grassroots nature of the campaign.

"There was a freshness to our message and we thought we were using technology well," he said of the hundreds of millions of dollars raised on the Internet. "Technology was the driver for us in fundraising and delivering our message."

The campaign team invested a lot of time in making sure its message was clear and communicated directly to supporters. More than 13 million names were on their email distribution list.

The idea was to have supporters talk to their loved ones and neighbours about the campaign, which Plouffe believed would be a more powerful way to spread the word than television ads and newspaper articles.

Plouffe, who did not take questions from the media and reportedly forbade audio and video recordings of his Toronto speech.

The Pope & Google Join Forces

The Pope & Google Join Forces

Pope Benedict XVI can look forward to engaging himself in new age media technology. The Vatican is all set to announce the details of the venture, as Google and the Pope have now come together in order to create a new channel for Pope Benedict XVI, which he will call his own.

This channel will be used for the direct posting of all the texts and videos of the Pope and his speeches as recorded by The Vatican television and radio. The head of the Vatican department of Social Communications, Claudio Maria Celli has organised a news conference referred to as “New Technologies, New Relationships: Promoting a Culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship”, on Friday. The Managing Director of Media Solutions for Google, Henrique de Castro will also be present at the conference to give out more details on the venture of the Pope.

The Vatican has long since entered the world of technological media and been a part of it. In 1995, the late John Paul II worked towards the launch of The Vatican’s own website. This website was powered by three computers that were named after the archangels. Both The Vatican newspaper and radio have their own website, even though some do believe that the internet is a bad influence.