Obama Koolaid: A computer geeks perspective...

I couldn't give a better explanation in my own words than what this guy who blogs in recent post The Common Culture Root of Web 2.0 and Barack Obama:

On the surface, the Web 2.0 phenomenon and the Obama phenomenon are unrelated. They seem to be unrelated events in two separate fields. However, deep down, they are both results of something deeper in our current culture and society. Our civilization and society have evolved into an era that is distinctly different from anything that the human kind has had before. Let’s look at the characteristics and principles of this iGen culture by comparing the Obama phenomenon and the Web 2.0 phenomenon. Connecting With People Before Web 2.0, people connected and communicated just fine. However, the iGen culture elevated “connecting with people” to such a status that we value a social network like FaceBook, useful but not sure how useful, at a staggering $15B valuation, three years after it was founded. In the presidential race,Hilary kept pounding on her track record, experience and issues/positions.–Isn’t that presidential candidates should do? However, the secret here is that“connecting with people” is far more important in this era. Obama did really well here by putting “connecting with people” at the front and center of his attention Popularity First, Everything Else Later In the Web 2.0 world, it is a winning strategy for “a startup to focus on pursuing millions of users first, and worry about business model later”.FaceBook, YouTube, Google, MySpace, Skype… that have proven this time and time again. In a presidential race, you would expect things like issues, positions, track record, etc as the key factors influencing voter decisions. Nope. “Popularity” is the key in this iGen culture. Whether a candidate is liked by voters weighs much more than other factors. Of course, we all logically know that “likeability! = capability”. However, human beings are genetically programmed to “vote” for what their hearts felt instead of what their heads tell them. User Experience Is The Differentiator The rise of Web 2.0 reflects what consumers nowadays are looking for: a better experience. iPhone: User Experience Is The Differentiator.Obama excels at delivering a “great user experience” from his speeches. If you listen to him talk, it’s all about being uplifting and inspiring. The “user experience” from Obama talks is undoubtedly better than any other candidates. Don’t Be Boring For the first time, “attention” is the rare commodity for the majority of the people in our society. Yet as individuals, we are psychologically hungry for “attention”. We register ourselves onto all different kinds of social networks and compete on the number of “virtual friends” we have. We carry mobile phones with us on a 24X7 basis, and yet, we have to set up instant messengers and Skye accounts to feel connected. Instant gratification is readily available in everywhere and yet we constantly search for the next instant gratification. The iGen culture hates to be bored and ignores anything that sounds boring. We have gone through so many presidential elections that yet another one is just boring. However, Obama is different. He is almost everything that a serious president candidate would have wanted to avoid in previous elections. But he is not boring and our attention goes to him. Change is More Important Than Experience (Change vs. Experience) The web 2.0 world has shown time and time again that “change” rather than “experience” builds success. FaceBook,MySpace, YouTube etc are all built by young and inexperienced young “kids”. Some of them didn’t even graduate from college. In this presidential race, there has been a battle of change vs. experience. Though it is logical to think that “strong experience” is required to be able to deliver “changes” successfully,“experience” doesn’t really matter too much in the iGen culture. If you compare the “experience” side of Obama and Hilary, Hilary clearly wins. In any other time in history, it is hard to think someone as inexperienced as Obama would be taken seriously. However, this is the culture that we value change more than experience