There is little doubt that a key part of this success was the campaign’s wholesale adoption of social media tools and ideas: by the time of the election the campaign had amassed an e-mail list of 13 million supporters, as well as three million mobile users subscribed to the team’s SMS service.

However, these members were not simply passive recipients of campaign information notices.  They formed a crucial part of the campaign’s ground force.  Using a variety of online tools including Facebook, Twitter, and the campaign’s bespoke myobama.com social networking, users were empowered to become an extension of the campaign: raising money (with personal metrics and targets), arranging their own campaign events, creating viral videos, and recruiting more and more to the cause.

The success of the Obama online campaign has surely had an indelible effect on campaign strategy for the foreseeable future.  Its implications, though, go beyond politics.  Advocacy groups, businesses, governing bodies, social movements — all should now consider how such approaches can be used to mobilise and grow their own constituencies, gain allies, and advance their agenda.

“The Obama campaign leveraged all the tools of social media to give ordinary Americans access to resources usually reserved for professional campaign operatives.  Compared with both his Democratic primary challengers and the McCain campaign, his operation was cycles ahead.”

- Edelman Communications

Delivery of a policy intervention or publically-funded programme has never been the sole remit of the government.  However, more than ever, we are seeing lines blurring between public, private, and third sector.

Social tools provide new ways for the public to devise and implement solutions to social problems, and for the government to make use of them.

“The financial and economic crisis makes creativity and innovation in general, and social innovation in particular, even more important to foster sustainable growth, secure jobs and boost competitiveness.”

- European Commission President José Manuel Barroso.

Social technologies have massive potential to involve the public across the policy lifecycle - from identifying issues to identifying alternative solutions, from designing public interventions to their delivery.  It is certainly possible that, properly administered, the “Wisdom of the Crowds” can extend and improve the way we consider and develop policy.

But equal to the opportunities of these technologies are the inherent challenges of mass deliberation.  How do we efficiently “take onboard” hundreds or thousands of different comments?  How do we avoid the vocal minority from hijacking debate from the quiet majority?  How do we ensure meaningful deliberation?

This shift offers new opportunities for online public diplomacy in terms of advocacy and, especially, policy development – through online collaboration among policy-makers within governments, and also between governments and citizens across the globe, to address cross-national policy challenges such as resource competition, sustainable development and interethnic conflict. Online advocacy and policy development provide governments with clear benefits, but also carry risks.

- Prof. Evan Potter, USC Centre of Public Diplomacy

- Deloitte Research, 2008

A practical evening of discussion, debate & demos in relation to the creation of the OpenGov Platform which aspires to become an open source & open sourced platform for the publishing of open, public UK government data sets.

To register & pay please use this link: http://www.mashupevent.com/event/opengov-event-data