Obama = OPEN

The true frenzy of the primaries has just started to show up locally. With less than two weeks until the vote here in Ohio, each day there's a new message on my answering machine or in my email box from one of the candidates' camps. A lot of it feels like the same old...you know. But not all. For the first time in a long time, we've got someone who's doing something different. Barack Obama.

The campaign homepage states emphatically that the goal is "ONE MILLION PEOPLE TO OWN THIS CAMPAIGN". It's a whole different mindset.

And, of course, the Yes We Can video, produced by will.i.am of the hip hop group Black Eyed Peas. Within weeks, what started as just one more campaign speech became a song, a video, and now a movement.

Background: The video is a musical, mashed-up, celebrity-studded version of Obama's New Hampshire speech. will.i.am says he was so inspired by the speech that he made the song, and then created the video. The campaign was smart enough to post the video on its homepage. Just in the last week, the experience opened up even more. Anyone (with a Flickr account) can now be a part of the videos--just go the Hope.Act.Change site and upload your own pictures into a photo-mosaic version of the Yes We Can video.

What else is open about Obama?

• Information is given on-demand, via mobile, video, blog, social network, and by topic areas (not all or nothing)
• The campaign site is personal with so many videos, pictures and comments from real people that it gives the feeling of ownership outside the campaign itself.
• Barack Obama himself is a key engaging factor, but the campaign itself (not unlike other campaigns) is built on outside participation.
• Supporters aren't just asked to tap their own networks, the campaign networks them too. For example, when someone makes a donation online, the campaign introduces them (with permission) to other supporters.

Regardless of your politics, Barack Obama is THE open brand candidate, proving that being on-demand, personal, engaging and networked does in fact work.