Comments on: How the Obama Campaign Makes “Two Minute Volunteers”

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:56:00 +0000

Seriously, calling other people is only one tiny part of the application.

The issues part is great if you’re sitting there with someone who is bashing your candidate, you can look up the one-pager quick statement, or look in detail on pages and pages of what your candidate has said.

Obama’s campaign is so on top of things technologically, apparently he’s got his own DirecTV channel too???

Seriously, if he wins we might see another big IT boom. If McCain wins, he’ll probably outlaw email since he doesn’t even know how to use it. :)

By: Li

Li — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:03:05 +0000

Oy…I am voting Democrat and I think this is a nightmare application…I’m all for getting out the vote and for the advancement of technology but I’m also sick of spam email, junk mail, and unwanted phone calls. The best thing about caller id…you don’t have to pick up. The problem with this, and it’s genious from the tech side, is that what would have been an unknown and unwanted call is now coming from your buddy. Is he calling to hang out or to campaign? Who knows…

I really liked the comments from iPhoneSecurity…on the mark…just because the campaign isn’t going to abuse personal information (or at least claims) doesn’t mean a bright hacker won’t abuse the software.

By: Chan

Chan — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:56:21 +0000

WHile I’m sure the specific application is virtuous and completely above board as described, the concept strikes me as creepy and one more opportunity to abuse the user’s personal information. It also sounds like a great opportunity for someone to write up a spoofed application that would look/act like the Obama app, yet send contact data back to the mother ship. If Karl Rove were up on this, he’d probably have feeds going to RNC from unsuspecting Obama-ites.

By: Gourry

Gourry — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 06:30:57 +0000

Yay. More annoying calls from the Messiah’s followers.

By: catherine ann

catherine ann — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 02:56:32 +0000

I notice a slight problem with the ranking friends by state thing in this increasingly mobile world. You get to hang on to your phone number forever–meaning that I have a Georgia area code even though I live in and am registered to vote in the battleground state of Virginia. According to this application, I’d be last on my friend’s call list when indeed I should probably be first. And boyfriend has a Florida number thanks to the Navy, but he’s still registered back home in a red state, so he’ll be fielding unwanted calls (well, at this point I think they’re all unwanted).

By: iPhoneSecurity

iPhoneSecurity — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:40:13 +0000

Tired of worrying about old-fashioned internet security issues? Now, you can use your iPhone to send allegedly anonymized information about your calling activity to a politician’s campaign, and have newer, more modern security issues to worry about!

By: Lelah

Lelah — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:10:21 +0000

This is a phenomenal application of the most cutting edge technology. I would buy an iPhone just for it if I could afford one, and could afford to switch carriers!

By: liz

liz — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:19:22 +0000

That is one nifty little application and is certainly appealing to gen y-ers out there!