HAVING USED the internet to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to campaign for the White House, Barack Obama is now determined to use it to rule, in a bid to bypass much of the US media.
It has emerged, meanwhile, that the Obama campaign at one point considered using its 10 million-strong list of supporters' names as collateral for a loan, but did not go ahead with the plan because it received so much money elsewhere.
Just hours after victory was declared, millions of Americans were texted to be told they had not heard the last from Mr Obama. He sent an e-mail shortly afterwards to say his election was "the beginning, and not the culmination, of a political movement".
During the election battle, 95 staff were employed to run the campaign's website, which raised donations from 3.1 million people and organised grassroots supporters for rallies, canvassing and other election duties.
The success of the internet in the election is not confined to Mr Obama, with social networking companies such as Facebook and Twitter now seeking ways to exploit the experience they have gained.
Facebook marketing director Randi Zuckerberg said more than 15 million people logged on to its site on election day to keep track of the election, to encourage friends to vote and to check that they had done so. The company is now seeking to replicate its success in elections outside the US.
The ability of the internet to allow politicians to target their audience directly is illustrated by official YouTube figures, which show users spent 14.5 million hours viewing Obama campaign videos. "Barack Obama had a lot going for him already in this year's election, but his creative use of the internet played a huge role in making him president-elect. It couldn't have happened without the web," former US vice president Al Gore said on Friday.
The White House under Mr Obama is now considering running targeted campaigns to place appropriate advertising directly beside a New York Times or Washington Post story or other media content posted on the web.
Already, Mr Obama's www.change.gov transition website features a blog and suggestion form, continuing the direct and instantaneous interaction with the public that characterised his campaign.
Meanwhile, aides have acknowledged that the Obama campaign considered using its 10 million-strong list of names as collateral for a loan, but it did not go ahead with the plan because temporary cash-flow problems were eased.
US laws protecting the public's right to privacy are weak, and the Obama campaign never gave a cast-iron commitment to supporters that it would not pass on their details. Instead, it said it was "our general policy not to make personal information available to anyone other than our employees, staff and agents", and those with "similar political viewpoints and objectives, in furtherance of our own political objectives".
Republican John McCain used his smaller list of supporters as collateral for a loan last January, though his campaign insisted this did not mean the list could be used for direct mailing.
