Peter Leyden: This is going to open up a 20- or 25-year-plus run of a different kind of politics that’s going to have historical implications. If Hillary Clinton won, we would not have the same transformation. She doesn’t really understand technology in her bones.
Craig Newmark: 2008 was the new 1776, so I’d say that 2009 is the new 1787. In 1776, we broke free of an oppressive system and began to create something new. This year, we’ve broken from an admin­istration that had broken with American values—and I feel we’re going to use the Internet to give a much stronger voice and real power to the grassroots.
Peter Leyden: How do you use these next-generation tools not just for winning in politics or inspiring volunteerism, but also for government policymaking? As an example, Al Gore has put out this challenge to get the entire electrical grid off of oil and on to renewable resources within 10 years. We haven’t figured it out yet, but there’s a kind of understanding about how to use collaborative tools, wikis, and video to open up the policymaking process. I see a huge opportunity here.
Tim Dickinson: So, you’re going to see governance brought into a Web 2.0 world by people who know what they’re doing. Obama already has several policy listservs, with guys like Eric Schmidt and Craig Newmark—they’re invitation-only—where people can float ideas and other people join in. Before, you’d have to have some kind of commission structure and invite people to Washington for five days, so they would have to leave their lives and their families and everything else. But this is a social network of brilliant people that’s operating continuously.
Lawrence Lessig: There’s enormous potential if he can hold on to his transformational vision of creating a government people can trust, and of changing the way Congress and the administration function. It’s geeky, but it would be so significant if he makes all government data accessible in an open-source, nonproprietary, and consistent format, so anyone could download it and do whatever they want with it.
Thomas Gensemer: You could get people offline in community forums and having meetings, advocating for items on the agenda in Congress in real ways, not just sending emails.
David Carr: A digitally actualized, younger demographic is going to become part of a permanent political class. They expect to be not only informed but involved. The web has lowered the barrier to entry to participation that much. You know, passing along a link to what you believe to be a persuasive blog or video is really no sweat off your ass.
Joan Walsh: Obama has a 13-million-person email list, plus all the independent groups that grew up around him. You want to see if his social-networking team can think of ways to use that network well. It could be an incredible fundraising tool, lobbying tool, and a polling-people-to-figure-out-what-they-really-want tool.
Tim Dickinson: Neighbor-to-neighbor outreach, brick by brick and block by block—I think he really believes in that stuff. He will go online and try to get people to do good in their communities, rather than just do good for Obama.
Jim Klar: If a Katrina happens again during Barack’s presidency, people will open up their wallets. There’s still a trust factor.
Marshall Ganz: You don’t just put that genie back in the bottle. There are millions of people across the country who were part of this campaign, and they aren’t just going to disappear.
Molly Kawahata: There was a sentiment that naïve younger people like me were being brainwashed to support him. But I wasn’t naïve—I just believed the message. I saw someone who had a very clear vision of how to get past what’s been poisoning politics. Now I can’t wait to get involved in my next campaign. I’m 18. I will find ways to not disappear.