The Twitterer-in-Chief? What “Decision ‘08″ Can Teach Museums

• By Jenny Parker
• September 24, 2008

John McCain has been catching flack lately for admitting his lack of computer skills: it has lead to some amusing news stories and an ad from the Obama campaign. But a recent New York Times Week in Review piece makes an excellent point about the issue; to paraphrase, computers are a cultural marker and proficiency with them suggests a basic familiarity with the day-to-day experience of most Americans. No matter which candidate you are rooting for, it’s a point that offers some food for thought about being relevant to the lives of your audience.

It’s no stretch connecting these points about McCain to my prior post on how museums can benefit from visitor-contributions: tagging, sharing, surfing and digitally organizing information is the reality of how we experience the world today. These activities are not just a convenience, or a pastime, and they certainly aren’t a passing trend. To ignore this fact is to risk being dramatically out of touch with your audience.

Yet being web 2.0 literate isn’t just about keeping up appearances, either. Barack Obama’s campaign has put technology to work to tap into new audiences at an exponential rate. Listen to this NPR report for just one example of his campaign’s use of text messaging.

For even more about how the presidential candidates are using the web – and being affected by it – check out the Personal Democracy Forum’s blog, techPresident.

Being cyber savvy may not be the key to the presidency. But it is definitely an important aspect of understanding how your audience experiences its world – and it provides a whole new sea of connections just waiting to be made.

Filed under: trends, what's cookin'