Obama Campaign Develops New iPhone App
The campaign of democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama launched a new iPhone application on Thursday aimed at recruiting even more people to get out and vote.
"This tool is designed to help you become more directly involved in our campaign to change the country," Obama’s blog said.
The free application was made available for iPhone and iPod Touch users on Apple Inc’s App Store only 33 days from the presidential election.
The application carries a “Call Your Friends” feature that allows users to organize contacts by key battleground states, a feature the Obama campaign says it’s “hoping will generate thousands of additional personal contacts.”
The total number of calls made with the application is tracked by the campaign, although no personal contact information will leave a user’s phone in order to protect privacy.
The application also allows users to mark reminder notes on which friends they have called, who they are supporting and who wants a reminder call on Election Day.
"This really has the potential to help the campaign," said Jason Grigsby, one of the project leaders.
"The use of mobile technology to get out the vote and get people involved is a way for the grass roots to really make an impact."
Other features make it easy to find a local campaign office using the phone’s current location via GPS. Up-to-date news, video, photos and talking points are all sent directly to users through the application.
"It’s a pretty slick iPhone application,” said Declan McCullagh, chief political correspondent at news site CNET.
"Having your friends sorted by battleground states is something I haven’t seen any other politician come up with before. This is a glimpse of the future of high-tech politicking."
Jonathan Wight, another developer who worked on the project, said he did not believe John McCain’s camp would have time to better their efforts.
"It took us less than three weeks and if they haven’t started coding already they won’t catch up."
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