The traditional media never gave Bernie Sanders the time of day. But he went viral the same way hip-hop and new dances go viral. And I'm part of that culture.
The Democratic Party had no idea how to use the Internet. They treated it like free money and then kept on doing all the rest of the things they normally do.
Mr. Trump understands the value of digital operations.
It always seemed to me ironic that the McCain campaign kept referring sneeringly to Obama's meager resume - 'a mere community organizer!' - before he entered electoral politics. It was Obama's experience as a community organizer that proved such a killer app when he applied that skill to the Internet.
In truth the social media elements of the Obama campaign, while extremely innovative, did not produce a lot of results.
There's no disputing that for pols, the Internet is a great way to connect with people and raise some cash and post 'Sopranos' parodies or play your opponent's macaca moments. But in a 'net root' sense, it's pretty useless for getting someone elected.
The Internet provides the campaign with an unbiased filter to get its information out.
From the Americans, I took the meet-up platform, from Howard Dean. He used it to gather money. I use it to gather information, to gather forums, not money. This we copied from the United States, the use of the Internet.
Digital activism did not spring immaculately out of Twitter and Facebook. It's been going on ever since blogs existed.
I've learned the dangerous lesson of the web: You succeed by giving up control, and that's inverse of the normal campaign.
