US election and having a conversation

The Financial Times carries a major piece this week on Barack Obama and his use of online communicatons at the heart of his campaign. (Obama steals a march with technology.) The article highlights that while Hilary Clinton has made extensive use of online communications, it is in a fairly hierarchical and traditional model of communications. In contrast Obama's team has made extensive use of a riskier but potentially powerful model based on co-collaboration. Note how Richard Edelman has made extensive reference to this concept of collaboration, particularly in a Forrester presentation. The FT quotes "staff and volunteers have the autonomy to make their own decisions.