Organizing and Technology in the Obama Campaign

For all the media hype, the Obama campaign’s organizing strategy is still not well understood. Organizer, writer, and Open Society Fellow Zack Exley led a conversation about how the Internet actually contributed to efforts on the ground, what worked and what didn’t, and how the organizers' training and work was a radical departure from traditional electoral politics.

He discussed how the campaign borrowed strategies from the community-organizing world and specific innovations that can be exported back out to nongovernmental organizations. Exley also looked at what activists inspired by the campaign are doing today.

Leonard Benardo, director of the Open Society Fellowship program, introduced the event.