President Obama posts a tweet during an online town hall meeting in July from the White House in Washington.

Discussion:  Currently, Obama is the only Presidential candidate that is harnessing the power of big data, and this fact may help him to be re-elected in 2012.  By analyzing and studying mass amounts of data, Obama and his campaign are identifying voters and finding out which issues are most important to them.  By addressing these issues, and voters that may be undecided or “on the fence”,Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign will have a new way of identifying, connecting with and mobilizing voters.  The Obama Campaign also has an app on Facebook that compiles lists of personal information for users that have “friended” them, as well as friends of friends.  Basically, they are devising a new kind of social intelligence that will help drive campaign resources where they are most needed.

Source:  CNN

Date:  October 9, 2011

Link:  http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/09/tech/innovation/obama-data-crunching-election/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

Discussion Questions:

• Why is the Obama the only major candidate trying to harness the large amounts of voter data that is available on the internet?
• Are there privacy issues with gathering this type of personal information about voters, or friends of voters?