Internet to be Obama's close aide during governance

Washington, Nov 8 : US President-elect Barack Obama, who is the first presidential candidate to widely use the Internet during his campaign, has revealed that he would like to take the aid of the Web during his governance too.

Obama had earlier in his campaign used the Web to get his message out, especially to young voters, and CBS News' correspondent Daniel Sieberg reports that the Web will most likely be an important feature when he takes office.

The President-elect has shown his interest in using the Web as one of the tools for governing, saying that he would like to appoint a chief technology officer, perhaps at the cabinet level.

He has also made it clear he will embrace new technologies in office -- technologies such as Skype.

"(Mr.) Obama recognized that young voters are using social networking sites and social networking software, and he brought his campaign to the young voters online," CBS News quoted John Tedesco, a Virginia Tech political communications professor, as saying.

Sieberg noted on The Early Show Friday that this election cycle went further than the candidates' personal Web sites, as both Obama and John McCain tapped into the newest forms of social interaction, from Facebook to MySpace, even text messages.

Obama was even able to raise record amounts of money for a presidential campaign through the Web.

"A lot of elections have been won because of television appearances," Doug Jaeger, a Web designer for thehappycorp.com, told Sieberg.

"How people are appearing on the Internet is becoming more and more important," he said.

The Web has played an important role in helping Obama during his campaign, and Sieberg points out that the President-elect now needs to move out of the campaign mode to the governing mode with his cyber-supporters.

"The Internet has changed the game dramatically," says Andrew Rasiej, founder of TechPresident.com.

"It's as if, in 2004, the Internet was allowed into the conference room of politics; in 2006, it was allowed to sit at the table; but in 2008, it's sitting at the head of the table, holding the agenda.

"We're going to see this online community become really the special interest of the Obama presidency. Not the lobbyists, not the people who've traditionally give money, but the people who actually know how to use these tools to make sure that their voices are heard," he added.

ANI