NYT: How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks’ Power

Thanks to GlorysGirl for the link to this NYT article.

Is was nice to see this after I had just written about value at the edges of networks.  The article talks about Obama's campaign as a classic garage effort that upset the broken, dominant system.  A good read.

clipped from www.nytimes.com How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks’ Power By DAVID CARR Published: November 9, 2008 In February 2007, a friend called Marc Andreessen, a founder of Netscape and a board member of Facebook, and asked if he wanted to meet with a man with an idea that sounded preposterous on its face. “It was like a guy in a garage who was thinking of taking on the biggest names in the business,” Mr. Andreessen recalled. “What he was doing shouldn’t have been possible, but we see a lot of that out here and then something clicks. He was clearly supersmart and very entrepreneurial, a person who saw the world and the status quo as malleable.” And as it turned out, President-elect Barack Obama was right.  More profoundly, while many people think that President-elect Obama is a gift to the Democratic Party, he could actually hasten its demise. Political parties supply brand, ground troops, money and relationships, all things that Mr. Obama already owns.