Hope. Now.

4 November 2008 was absolutely momentous for Americans—indeed all global citizens; a testament to the American dream. From Washington to Los Angeles, historically high voter turnouts and pressurized campaigns (both financially and politically) made the 2008 election has been the most impassioned political memory ever.

According to the Associated Press referencing George Mason University [Washington], election results reached around 64.1 percent of registered voters. This number was only bet in 1908 when 65.7 percent of registered voters turned out—a century! Although disagreements have ensued, many analysts agree the turnout hasn’t been higher since 1965 at least.

What made me so hopeful about this election is the participation rate of volunteers (albeit that one problem with a McCain volunteer). Seniors, students, unemployed people, parents and professionals came together. Dedicated democrats, moderates and even fallen Republicans made calls using the ‘Neighbor to Neighbor’ tool and extensive network of social media tools on www.barackobama.com (built with an open source) to connect them with events, other supporters and news.

One volunteer, Mike Smith, a political specialist and representative from the Australian labor party was so interested in the Obama campaign he took one month leave to assist the Obama campaign in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In October, Smith canvassed doors, fundraised and increased the efficiency of an already full-proof campaign through inputting a system of barcoding to enable volunteers to manageably deal with the vast amounts of data handled everyday.

The New York City NetSquared chapter met with Mike over a coffee on 6 November before his 23-hour flight home and had an interesting chat about how he planned a campaign in his local Ryan, Australia.

And the 4 November election saw even more social media interest. Streaming video of participants who were crying, cheering and overjoyed in Chicago. A personal favorite is a friends’ facebook page of a fellow NetSquared enthusiast and social entrepreneur created called Live @ ObamaPalozza to detail the Obama acceptance speech.

For me, that historic moment gave me so much hope for change. Let’s use our positive energy for good, America!

Let’s change ourselves.

~ by Erica Grigg on 11/11/2008.