iPhone Application

One way in which Obama's campaign was able to take advantage of the new literacies was by creating the iPhone application about 30 days before elections took place. Obama’s iPhone application is one exceptional example of the campaign benefits and the democratizing elements of improvements in phone technology.


The electorate is extremely mobilized because of the Smartphone improvements that have taken place in the past few years, especially with the emergence of the iPhone. The Obama Campaign took advantage of the platform provided by the iPhone innovations by creating an iPhone application that allowed people to call their friends from their personal contact lists to spread the word about Obama, to learn about events in real time and on the go, and to sign up to get involved at local campaign centers all from their own phones. Obama put the work of his campaign in the hands of anyone willing to volunteer to take on responsibility.


This application allows citizens to help the campaign on their own time and encourages them to take on official responsibilities in local campaign offices by utilizing the GPS function to locate event near the phone owner. This encourages supporters to stay involved in any area of the United States by compiling all of the events that they could participate in geographically.


The most important feature of the application is that it reorganizes the owner's contact book by geographic location so that the user can call their friends in key states to remind them to vote or to talk to them about Obama. The application tracks how many calls were made, both to keep for their own campaigning use and to encourage the user to make many calls. It also allows the caller to enter the response of their friend, with the options being, “Not Interested,” “Considering Obama” and “Already Voted.” The reasoning behind this new use of the iPhone platform is that, “A contact has a lot more value when it is from someone you know than when it is from some random person.” Chris Hughes, Obama's director of online organizing, took advantage of this strategy by using the iPhone as a resource to help friends convince each other to vote for Obama in 2008.

The iPhone also allowed voters to get information on Obama's stances on the issues, which led to a more informed public- or at least a public that had the most handy access to the information. With supporters able to reach this information anywhere at anytime, voter preference was reinforced and solidified. The phone solidified and then mobilized supporters, encouraging them to become more active in the campaign itself rather than just voting.

Obama used the internet via the iPhone to stimulate grassroots level activities to keep the campaign moving. In the future, this type of campaigning will be more prevalent because more people will have access to iPhone-level technology. Using new media such as the iPhone has restored a sense of political efficacy in the electorate because people can now make a difference by themselves. They can see how many calls they have made, how many events they have participated in, and can access information about even more ways to get involved via their personal mobile devices.