Updated: How Joe Anthony Schooled the Barack Obama Campaign, and What We Still Don't Know - By Alex Hammer (Commentary)

See Also:
Joe Anthony Challenges Joe Rospars - TechPresident
http://hammer2006.blogspot.com/2007/05/joe-anthony-challenges-joe-rospars.html

Will TechPresident Abandon Joe Anthony?
http://hammer2006.blogspot.com/2007/05/will-techpresident-abandon-joe-anthony.html

Updated: How Joe Anthony Schooled the Barack Obama Campaign, and What We Still Don't Know - By Alex Hammer (Commentary)
Does anybody still doubt that this isn't (with acknowledgement to the famous TV car commerical) your grandfather's Presidential campaign? Just when we got over the amazement at the impact that one individual citizen in this race can have with the "1984" Hillary Clinton video, along comes Joe Anthony.

This kid (if you can call someone 29 years old a kid) is for real.

Unless you've been sleeping under a rock, and maybe even then, you've heard about Joe, and how he built Obama into a MySpace force with approaching 160,000 friends. While it's a given that Obama is a potent political force, and it is here also acknowledged that with the Obama URL Joe's task was a bit easier, that is still quite the positive accomplishment due to the skills and work of Anthony.

Quite the accomplishment.

The Obama camp has taken a noticeable hit, and time will tell whether it evolves into a substantial one, from their taking over the MySpace page (and the manner in which this may have occurred) from Joe.

Says TechPresident:
"It's been quite a day out here on the internets, with the blogosphere buzzing over our story yesterday of how Obama volunteer Joe Anthony lost control of his MySpace Obama page to the pros at the Obama campaign....My bottom line? I think the Obama campaign really fumbled this relationship, and its new media team is dealing with the aftermath of their own mistakes."

TechPresident's Micah Sifry has done a phenomenal job of bringing this story to the public in a compelling and incisive manner that appears also quite balanced.

Kudos to new media.

In the age of YouTube, bloggers, citizen journalists and all the rest, woe to any candidate who thinks they can ignore this medium.

Or treat it shabily.

A clear endgame to this Obama MySpace drama has yet to appear (or maybe it has!). Thus while many seem to feel that Joe provided significant value and was indeed treated shabily, what will emerge from this, if anything, remains unclear.

Here are some important questions going forward at this time. I don't have any power to demand answers but:

1. What is the Obama camp going to do now? Obama himself reached out to Joe by making personal contact. That was nice, but frankly damage control. Rospars has taken a well reported "swipe" (if that's not too strong a term) at Anthony (discrepancies in regard to how the relationship broke down and what transpired still to be resolved) but the Obama camp needs to do more. Much more. Especially as Obama presents himself as a new and idealistic type of candidate, the bad taste of this incident is not the type of different politician - I'm sure - that he wishes to reflect.

I'm not the candidate, but I'd do an apology, and one with teeth. Would that open up a Pandora's box for the future? Not really. One can still treat future situations with the type of response that each appropriately merits.

2. What is the role of MySpace in all this? That is an important element, and thus far noted in the press but underreported. How controlling influences balance interests between campaigns and individuals (and also the media, new and traditional) needs really to be determined. And perhaps this case, if given sufficient attention, will yield some important guideposts.

3. Who owns what? Or is ownership even the proper word? How do we develop and then utilize a framework, a structure, that meaningfully and fairly addresses this?

We have more questions still than answers in this potential saga. What degree of "legs" this story has also remains to be seen.

I, for one, will be waiting to see what occurs.

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