I recently received an email from moveon.org asking me if I’d be willing to help with their “Hungry for Change” Bake Sale in my local area. These bake sales are taking place all over the nation today to raise funds for MoveOn.org.  Once again, social networking/social media brings me to a place where I can share cupcakes and friendship. Love that.

Vanilla Bean Cake with Chocolate Ganache and Sprinklies

Vanilla Bean Cake with Chocolate Ganache, Nonpariels and Fondant Stars

From an article today on ReadWriteWeb -

Obama’s campaign is using wikis and social media to motivate and engage voters. According to Josh Catone, Obama has “run one of the most comprehensive online campaigns in recent memory — perhaps ever — generally outperforming opponents on nearly every social network or social media site…”.

When you think about community building and engaging people with social media, this is what I’m talking about. Has Obama stopped having people knock on doors or make phone calls this primary season? Absolutely not, because they know that works and makes a difference.. BUT… taking advantage of these new technologies has also made a difference. By using things like wikis, blogs, twitter, etc.. you can reach people, change thinking and build a community of people that support your cause. I do know that Hillary Clinton is also using these sorts of things in her campaign but I’m not sure that she’s using them to the extent that Barack Obama is.

Another quote from the article that I found really interesting was, ‘”The Web-based collaboration platform combined with a strong organized grass-roots effort, created unprecedented public involvement that is revitalizing politics in America,” said Patrick DeTemple, the California Data & Systems Manager for the Obama campaign.”.

Grassroots effort, and collaboration.

Where else have we recently heard these terms? In the New Media Consortium’s Horizon Report for 2008. See how it all comes together, people?