Launched in February 2007, Obama’s technological infrastructure has achieved the Holy Grail of online activism, realizing that online efforts were creating offline movement. 

Obama’s social networking site, myBarackObama.com, has created a community of volunteers who provided invaluable feedback. Not to mention the fundraising ability of the Internet and its role in Obama’s campaign: Obama’s 3.1 million donors who have contributed an average of less than $200 dollars to propel Obama into a record-breaking total of $600 million dollars in overall contribution in 2008.  The most recent online fundraising record hit $1.5 million in September of donations averaging $86 dollars.

Door-to-door canvassing and information processing are elements that have made Obama’s online grassroots movement one to study. The Obama campaign has given their volunteers online tools to phone-bank and canvass more efficiently such as access to online databases.  In the past, campaigns kept lists under lock and key, but the available online resources allow volunteers quick and easy access to call lists.

As Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook and Obama’s online organizer, (he left the company last year to work join Obama’s campaign) said, “We’ve really poured a lot of energy and thought into making this focused on real-world organizing activity.”

Obama Mobile, another way Obama's campaign has pioneered the movement of political campaigns into 21st century technology uses the cell phone numbers it has collected through promo's like the VP text announcement sweepstakes and the Obama iphone application to collect cell phone numbers to reach Obama supporters.

Whether you read the Huffington Post or the Drudge Report, the resounding opinion is that Barack Obama has utilized the Internet and technology such as social networking, online fundraising, information processing and mobile technology to empower grass-roots activism more effectively than John McCain in his run for the White House.  Will Obama’s online grass-roots path lead to the White House?  We will have to wait and see.