For her part, Obama followed five accounts, including her husband's, three official White House Twitter accounts and the account of Obama Campaign Manager Jim Messina. The account is being maintained by Obama's reelection campaign, with tweets posted by the First Lady signed "-mo."

If this is a weapon, the Democrats may be in trouble. While it certainly can't hurt, tweets about the MLK Day of Service and health care initatives backed by the First Lady certainly don't seem like a death blow to the GOP. Most of the activity on the account's first day was from well-wishers welcoming her to Twitter, including a message from President Obama.

"It's not every day we get to welcome the First Lady of the United States to Twitter -- happy to have you," the first tweet from President Obama's account said this morning.

The President's account is also managed by his campaign staff, and his wife has some catching up to do: @BarackObama has 11.9 million followers.

Who would do such a thing? It would appear to be conservative political blogger Patrick Ruffini, who last month wrote that he was squatting on both the Obama and McCain names on names via a Twitter update. Last night he cheekily wondered who the mystery squatter could be.

Ruffini is one of the most web-savvy people in politics (with people like him on the right, it is a wonder that they haven't yet figured out how to tap into the power of the web the way Obama or massive groups like MoveOn.org and blogs like HuffingtonPost have). During the Iowa caucuses earlier this year, Ruffini was the first to know about Obama's surprising victory. How? An ingenious use of Twitter. Ruffini used Facebook to recruit caucus goers and then had them tweet results from inside the caucus sites to a special Twitter feed that he watched for trends.

"Twitter is revolutionizing newsgathering and real citizen journalism. The crowd will know about it before the media knows about it," Ruffini told PBS MediaShift in March -- that's a sentiment we've echoed on RWW in the past. So it's not surprising that he would embrace FriendFeed as a way to easily aggregate all the data points from the various campaigns. With such an unprecedented use of social media going on during this election cycle, Ruffini's FriendFeed accounts will alert him of new media from the campaigns as soon as it's out there. Smart.

The site, which says that it wants to give "the Obama grassroots a platform to submit and vote on ideas to better the 2008 primary and general election campaign of Barack Obama," works in generally the same way as the Dell, Starbucks, or Salesforce sites do. Users submit ideas, then vote and comment on their favorites. The top ideas right now are "Make transparency a central issue in the campaign" and "Keep the Obama logo and visual identity for the general [election]."

Josh Levy at TechPresident thinks that the site was "likely borne out of necessity," because the netroots has criticized Obama for not reaching out to online activists. With Obama's embrace of social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, and his dominance of those online forums (compared to other presidential candidates), it's hard to figure out what else he could be doing to engage the online audience, though.

Ben Smith over at Politico believes that Oh Boy Obama "doesn't quite fit the mold" for the Obama campaign, which he sees as wanting to maintain "tight strategic control" at the expense of "real community engagement." That also seems a little off the mark, though. We wrote in March about the Obama campaign's use of wikis in the Texas and California primaries to organize on the ground campaign efforts. Wikis were specifically appealing to Obama because they allowed volunteers to shape the messaging and quickly collaborate with each other without the need to go through a webmaster. Or in other words: Obama was willing to relinquish control in favor of organizational speed.

Regardless, Oh Boy Obama is making use of a good idea from the corporate world in a way that makes sense in the political world. The Obama campaign will likely be able to cull some good ideas from the site while they shape their general election campaign this fall (assuming Obama gets his party's nomination). Even though Oh Boy Obama users will be the most dedicated campaign supporters -- not representative of the country at large -- the site can be used as an early testing ground to guage reaction to new ideas. And at the very least, getting involved with sites like Oh Boy Obama will help the Obama campaign energize the grassroots.

According to a new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, this is also what Obama's supporters expect from their candidate. 46% of Obama voters expect the newly elected President to reach out to them directly through email, social networks, and text messages.

Looking back at the election campaign, the Pew survey also found that 59% voters flocked to the net for campaign activities before the general election.

Can the Administration Sustain this Enthusiasm?

Sustaining this enthusiasm among voters will be a challenge for the new administration, however. The Pew study rightly asks if these voters will remain politically engaged once the excitement of the election has worn off. At the same time, the administration itself will have to work hard to fulfill these expectations and to sustain its own enthusiasm for these new technologies. After all, it has now been almost 56 days since Obama last used Twitter.

It will also be interesting to see if the Republican party will now turn to the net to mobilize its supporters in preparation for the next election cycle.

Via Facebook Live and Livestream, Obama answered questions from Zuckerberg, the crowd and participants across the Web. Even though Obama was sitting on stage at the quintessential Web 2.0 corporation, not much of the conversation veered towards technology.

Questions included the national debt, the budget, the economic recovery, the Dream Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors), immigration, Medicare and Medicaid and education. For a while it sounded more like an "Obama For Re-Election in 2012" campaign stop than it did a conversation with one of the leaders of the Internet industry.

This is not the first time that Obama has gone to techland. In February he met with the leaders of the tech industry and had dinner with some of the most influential people in the United States. It is also not the first time that Obama has visited the home turf of a tech giant to tout education, as he did when he visited Intel in February to reiterate the need for more engineers in the world. Since his last State Of The Union address where he spent a significant amount of his speech on the need to pour money into tech, Obama has been making the rounds of the leaders in the industry to push the point home.

"We are in Silicon Valley, so, let's talk IT stuff," Obama said at one point. "I will try to pretend that I know what I am talking about."

Obama makes jokes that he is not tech savvy, but he is perhaps the American president most attuned to how current and emerging technology can lead the United States to a new economy and status in the global ecosystem.

For Obama, that all starts with education.

The president praised Zuckerberg as well as Bill Gates' charitable organizations for the work they do in advancing education in the realm of science and technology.

"Government alone cannot do it, there needs to be a cultural shift where we buckle down and say 'this stuff is important,'" Obama said. "That is why the work you, Mark, are doing is important, work that the Gates Foundation is doing in philanthropic investments in best practices in education [is] going to be so important. We have to lift our game up. That is hopefully one of the most important legacies I can leave as president of the United States."

Obama talked about the need for a cultural shift in American education that would create the type of people that can lead the United States in a technological evolution.

"That is why we are emphasizing math and science, that is why we are emphasizing math and sciences for girls, that is why we are emphasizing making sure that black and Hispanic kids are getting math and science. We have to do a much better job at STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education and that is one of the reasons that we had one of the first science fairs at the White House in a very long time [was] just because we want to start making science cool."

The presentation lists the following ways that Obama was "everywhere" in social media during his campaign:

• Obama has gained 5 million supporters in third party social networks.
• Obama maintained a profile in more than 15 online communities, including BlackPlanet, a MySpace for African Americans, and Eons, a Facebook for baby boomers.
• On Facebook, where about 3.2 million (during the campaign) signed up as his supporters, a group called Students for Barack Obama was created in July 2007.
• It was so effective at energizing college-age voters that senior aides made it an official part of the campaign the following spring.
• And Facebook users did vote: On Facebook's Election 2008 page, which listed an 800 number to call for voting problems, more than 5.4 million users clicked on an "I Voted" button to let their Facebook friends know that they made it to the polls.

Also check out these statistics from Obama's main website / social network, My.BarackObama.com:

• On MyBarackObama.com, Obama's own social network, 2 million profiles were created
• In addition, 200,000 offline events were planned
• About 400,000 blog posts were written
• And more than 35,000 volunteer groups were created - at least 1,000 of them on Feb. 10, 2007, the day Obama announced his candidacy

Here's the full presentation, with many more interesting facts and figures, via the wonderful SlideShare:

Case Study: The Barack Obama Strategy

Change is in the air and we at ReadWriteWeb are celebrating!!

But was it just a means to an end? Or is this personal engagement - embracing social media as a new way of communicating with the masses - something we should expect Obama to use throughout his presidency?

Given the rich history of politicians using a variety of means to attain office and - upon election - rapidly changing their respective tunes, the end of the campaign and the beginning of presidency held with it a certain amount of trepidation. Would the people's candidate - one who had been engaged and engaging - suddenly revert to the guise and personality of the classic politician?

Despite the overwhelming prevalence of "hope," an air of political cynicism - one formed by decades, if not centuries of experience - still festered below the surface. But that cynicism may have been dealt another blow. And the Obama campaign may have found another way to continue the conversation that they started.

With the launch of change.gov, Obama appears to be staying the course. He's not avoiding the conversation; he's embracing it. And while there's not much to the change.gov site currently, it's the fragments that tell the story. And it's a story of a continued commitment to interact with the people on a very personal basis:

"The story of the campaign and this historic moment has been your story. It is about the great things we can do when we come together around a common purpose. The story of bringing this country together as a healed and united nation will be led by President-Elect Obama, but written by you. The millions of you who built this campaign from the ground up, and echoed your call for the change you wanted to see implemented by the Obama Administration - this process of setting up that new government is about you."

As part of continuing that story, the Obama organization is asking the people of the US to share their stories and to share their goals.

In short, Obama has begun crowdsourcing the political agenda. And when it comes right down to it, isn't that what democracy is supposed to be about anyway? A government of the people, by the people, for the people?

A few weeks ago when Gartner hypothesized that "social networks will complement, and may replace, some government functions," it seemed almost laughable. But today, in the wake of what has occurred this week, it seems all the more accurate and attainable.

The Obama organization continues to turn the political machine on its ear and continues to shake the conventional wisdom of "political strategy." If change.gov is any indication, the use of social media appears to have been much more than a gimmick for Obama. It appears to have truly been a means of embracing change.

Whatever happens next, it will be incredibly interesting to see how this next act plays out. And what acts - or actions - follow.

(Photo credit Joe Crimmings Photography. Used under Creative Commons.)

It should be noted that while 'czar' might sound like an impressive title, in terms of the White House hierarchy, this new position will only be that of a "special assistant to the President," and whoever will fill this position will not have direct access to the President and have very little authority and even less authority over budgets.

According to Obama, not only do we depend on 'cyberspace' every single day ("cyberspace is real," he said), but, paradoxically, while the web empowers us to create great things, it also opens up a door to criminals. Cyber crime, according to Obama, costed about $8 billion in the last two years.

The focus of the announcement was squarely on ensuring privacy, preventing identity theft, and stopping hackers, but another emphasis of this new position would be to mediate between government and private industry initiatives, as well as ensuring communication about this topic between different government agencies. Protecting the "nation's information infrastructure" will be a priority for the White House.

As a side note, Obama also mentioned that hackers were able to hack the Obama campaign's systems last year.

What can Government Really Do?

There is something odd about hearing the government talk about this topic, though. While the Pentagon is obviously interested in this, not only to take out the networks of other countries, but also to prevent others from taking down its own networks, it just seems somewhat naive that a government initiative could do anything to prevent hackers from creating a botnet or breaking into government computers. While it is definitely a great idea to make sure that government agencies use the best possible methods to protect themselves, in the end, at least in the private space, what (besides more education) could a government do about users who don't run anti-virus software and don't patch their operating systems?

Now, since the Commander in Chief has admitted to not even being a Twitter user, we can also safely assume he's not big into Foursquare, either. But what if he were? What if he had the freedom to complain about bad restaurant service, gossip about his colleagues and get a hard-earned "Bender" badge just like the rest of us? Would the maps of his checkins look something like these, perhaps?

Perhaps one day, we'll be able to talk Obama (or one of his predecessors) into sharing the minutiae of his nightlife with the public. How do you think the Secret Service would feel about that?

Click the image below to see the full version, and let us know what you think in the comments.

The piece was inspired by the Foursquare-integrating BlackBook Guides (iTunes link), a set of cultural guides to major cities, featuring restaurants, nightlife, travel, fashion and entertainment.

Politico reports that both the Romney and Obama campaigns have started using Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's "magical" dongle, Square. Of course, you can't pay by saying your name as you now can at select merchants, but Square still makes campaign donations much faster and easier. Staff, field organizers and campaign volunteers hook up Square to their mobile phones and accept campaign donations on the spot.

Barack Obama has been leading the way on social media, giving the most interactive State of the Union address ever on Jan 24. It featured a Twitter hashtag and the entire speech was streamed on WhiteHouse.gov/SOTU. The White House also hosted a Google+ Hangout on Jan 30, which our own Jon Mitchell attended and blogged about. Sure, it might have been fun to hangout with the Prez, but unless you were one of the five Americans who actually hung out with him live, Mitchell reports, the experience felt just like television. Obama first launched as a Google+ brand, not a profile, late last year. Not long ago, the president joined Instagram.

Yes, it's pretty awesome that the Obama campaign is using Square, the oh-so-popular mobile photo app Instagram and the Google+ hangout feature. But we are at a point now where social media tools and mobile payments are hardly a novelty. Instead, they are accepted and necessary modes of communication. Will Square help raise more funds for Obama and Romney? Or is it just another payment option for the few?

There is one politician that Obama could learn a few things from: Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has been using Google+ since July 14, 2011, and his presence is frank and personal. Viral videos of Bernie Sanders spread like wildfire across the Internet, especially in progressive politics circles.

The fact that Obama waited until just today to join Google+ and launched as a brand instead of a person is troubling, and further solidifies the idea that he is just that - a brand. So now that Barack's on Google+, will he actually hangout?

Herman Cain created his user profile on October 27, more than a week before Google+ launched brand pages. His first Google+ post says: "It's great to now be on Google+! I am excited to use this tool on the campaign trail to better connect with all of my supporters!" Rick Perry's Google+ profile is completely blank. Mitt Romney waited until November 8, 2011, to launch his Google+ brand page with the following announcement to his fans: "One year from now, Americans will have the opportunity to choose a new president." Gingrich participated in his first Google+ Hangout on July 6. To help politicians along, Google published Google+ for politics.

Social media helped Obama win in 2008 and fundamentally changed the way political campaigns run in the Internet age. Obama currently has more than 24 million fans on his Facebook page and more than 11 million followers on Twitter. In September, the White House (which is not yet on Google+), partnered with LinkedIn for a live town hall about putting Americans back to work.

Political figures aside, to really gain top user status on the other social network, Obama must surpass the top five Google+ users: Larry Page, Britney Spears, Snoop Dogg, Mark Zuckerberg and Tyra Banks.

That calls for a potent combination of branding and hanging out. Is the Obama For America 2012 campaign up for it?

That said, however, Obama has dominated the online discussion since day one. It would appear that when it comes to spreading his campaign message via widgets, there's no exception to the rule -- Obama widgets are far and away the most popular. (Though, note that the data on this graph is based on the candidate's most popular widget in the Widgetbox system, and not averaged across multiple widgets -- so it's really only good for looking at a general trend.)

We tried to match peaks and valleys in widget installs to news events to see if there was any correlation, which is really difficult with this data. It looks like Obama saw a growing number of installs in the run up to the Ohio and Texas primaries (entering which he'd won something like 11 or 12 contests in a row) -- then flat-lined for a month after he lost them. Clinton saw a modest bump after Super Tuesday in February where she scored huge wins in New York and California. Sen. John McCain saw a big dip the first week in March, which coincided with his becoming the presumptive nominee and President Bush's endorsement (we'll let you guess which might have turned people off his widget...).

But what's important about this data, is the trends. Starting with the Iowa caucuses just after New Year's, Barack Obama has seen his widgets spread steadily across the web. And even though his campaign does push the widgets on his site, 80-90% of new installs are coming via widgets embedded on non-official blogs -- they're coming from the grassroots rather than via the campaign itself. Clinton and McCain widgets are also being spread virally by supporters, though clearly not as fast. It does look like McCain supporters are doing a better job of embracing new web technologies than they were earlier in the election cycle, though -- the first McCain widgets appeared on Widgetbox in mid-February and have enjoyed mostly steady upward growth since.

This is really just another data point to watch to gauge which candidate has momentum. It's really quite amazing to look a things like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and widgets to measure a US presidential election -- the last time around most of these tools didn't exist (or at least weren't nearly as important).

There are no major surprises in the reading lists of the two campaigns and it also needs to be noted that these are relatively small lists. John McCain's list is comprised of 26 feeds, while the Obama campaign only tracks 18 sources, including its own blog (and yes, somewhat predictably, McCain tracks Fox News and Obama the New York Times...). Overall, though, these reading lists are very conservative and mostly include the major, well known news organizations and large political blogs.

The setup of Power Readers in Politics is quite well done overall. Google completely avoids using any technical terms like RSS and OPML that might scare away users unfamiliar with feed reading. Instead, Google just offers users to subscribe to these reading lists in Google Reader. If this gets any traction, it might become a good way for Google to introduce more people to feed reading - but for that to happen, the campaigns will have to start sharing a bit more and may have to get a bit more adventurous in what items they share.

"Democrats outnumber Republicans 5-to-1 on Facebook and 3-to-1 on MySpace, said Bentley College professor Christine Williams, who studies online politics."

So far Barack Obama has 299,000 supporters on MySpace and Facebook, compared to 169,000 for Hillary Clinton. John Edwards ranks third among Democrats with 64,000 supporters, says the Washington Post - noting that Edwards is also using lesser-known social networks like Ning, Bebo and Care2.

Proving how web 2.0 hip he is, Obama even has a digg profile! Although judging by the amount of homepages he has (zero), Obama has my luck getting to the digg frontpage.