Barack Obama's Myspace Page
There is a wonderful battle that has taken place for our new internet century. I like Barack Obama. I would totally vote for him were it not for the fact that the primary will be decided long before I, in Colorado, get a say. On Myspace I was on Barack Obama's friend list. That was until it was decided by his people and Myspace that the person that has worked on it for the past two years deserves no compensation or involvement of any kind. Joe Anthony had labored on the page even before Obama had made a decision to run. And honestly after his performance at the first debate, I'm still not convinced that he is running. Joe Anthony and the Obama people had a nice working relationship at first as Joe racked up the friend list and the subsequent press coverage. The Obama campaign in it's infancy did not have much interest in it until that press coverage started rolling in about Myspace playing a role in the election. And so, and I am just making a very good guess here, they wanted to control the message further, they decided they wanted sole control of the page. Ever since that key note address at the convention I have liked Obama for his non-politician-ness (yeah, I say it's a word). But, if you are going to run for president, you need people around that know how to make you one. And they want to control every aspect of that image and message. Like say not having tons of pictures flying around of you smoking (I took this one from Wonkette, I didn't really search that hard though). So, Joe wanted a little scrilla for his troubles. I mean, approving 140,000 friend requests takes some time outta your life if you don't want a million webcam hoes throwing up ads on your deal. Joe Trippi parlayed what he did for Howard Dean on the internet into a whole career. And I don't think Joe Trippi has 140,000 friends. But, rather than pay anything to Mr. Joe Anthony, Obama's guys decided to just go straight to Myspace. Myspace decided to just hand it over to them apparently listing as their argument that since the url - www.myspace.com/barackobama was in Obama's name, he could have it. Well Myspace, I want the url to my name. An 18 year old girl in Jersey has it and I may one day run for president so hand it over. Now, you might say, well, he did run it under another guy's name. But, he said right there on the page that it wasn't Obama running it. And let's be honest here, I don't think Hillary is sitting around approving friend requests and replying to emails on Myspace. So, really it ain't as if she is technically running hers either. And Joe was for a time technically running it in their name. Also, I happen to also have Charles Darwin and Federico Fellini as friends too on Myspace. Let's just assume they are not being run by those dead guys and Myspace has no issues with that either. Otherwise, we have a whole other super cool Ghost In The Machine thing going on here. Myspace returned the page itself with the 160,000 friends to his power. I recommended to him that he turn it into a Mike Gravel Myspace. That way Mike Gravel would instantly have more friends on Myspace than any other candidate, and he needs the help and won't mind I don't think.
Wonkette article
Daily Kos article
Tech President article
What had been Obama's Myspace
Joe Anthony's Myspace
UPDATE 1:
Joe Anthony's radio interview today. Which the radio hosts over-dramatize the concept of the big bad presidential candidate "swooping in and stealing" this "little guy's" internet site. During of course which they demonstrate a painful lack of knowledge about the internet(s) as whole and social networks in general. But, they do touch upon a point that they make about as badly as I did as to the fact that Obama has embraced the non-politician image. And this was the act of a pure politician at work.
posted by Ash @ 2:52 AM
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