how obama's data-crunching prowess may get him re-elected

7/30/2019 How Obama's Data-crunching Prowess May Get Him Re-elected

1/9

Home Video World U.S. Africa Asia Europe Latin America Middle East Business World Sport Entertainment Tech Travel iReport

ByMicah Sifry, Special to CNNOctober 9, 2011 -- Updated 1250 GMT (2050 HKT) | Filed under: Innovations

President Obama posts a tw eet during an online town hall meeting in July fromthe White House in Washington.

Editor's note: Micah Sifry is co-founder ofPersonal Democracy

Forum, a website that examines how technology is changing politics,

and the author of "WikiLeaks and the Age of Transparency." This

commentary is the first in a regular series of "Campaign Tech"

articles that will explore technology's role in the 2012 presidential

election.

(CNN) -- In July, KDNuggets.com, an online newsite focused on datamining and analytics software, ran an unusual listing in its jobssection.

"We are looking for Predictive Modeling/Data Mining Scientists andAnalysts, at both the senior and junior level, to join our departmentthrough November 2012 at our Chicago Headquarters," read the ad."We are a multi-disciplinary team of statisticians, predictivemodelers, data mining experts, mathematicians, softwaredevelopers, general analysts and organizers - all striving for a singlegoal: re-electing President Obama."

The job listing caught the attention of Alex Lundry, a Republicandata-mining expert at TargetPoint Consulting. He tweeted a link to

the ad, commenting, "The Obama campaign is taking #bigdataseriously; what about the GOP candidates?"

The question almost answers itself. So far in the presidentialelection of 2012, there is only one campaign that is doing cutting-edge work with data.

How to control a computer witha banana

Facebook Home, privacy andyou

5 questions answered aboutFacebook Home

On Twitter, Ebert found a newvoice

Probing the ocean'sundiscovered depths

Most popular Tech stories right now

Explore the news with NewsPulse

How Obama's data-crunching prowessmay get him re-elected

EDITION: INTERNATIONAL U.S. MXICO ARABIC

TV: CNNi CNN en Espaol

Set edition preference

Sign up Log in

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

In the mechanics of identifyingvoters, President Obama's teamis ahead of GOPrivals

Obama's re-election campaign isthe only one doing cutting-edgework with data

President's operation uses apowerful social-networking toolcalled NationalField

Expert: GOPpresidentialcampaigns don't fully understandpower of data crunching

SHARE THISPrint

Email

Recommend 1.7kMore sharing

You've sele cted the International Edition. Would you like to make this your default e dition? Yes | No Close

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/05/tech/innovation/jay-silver-makey/index.htmlhttp://www.web2pdfconvert.com/?ref=PDFhttp://www.web2pdfconvert.com/?ref=PDFhttp://newspulse.cnn.com/http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/18/tech/oceans-woods-hole-oped/index.htmlhttp://www.cnn.com/2013/04/05/tech/social-media/roger-ebert-social-media/index.htmlhttp://www.cnn.com/2013/04/04/tech/mobile/facebook-home-five-questions/index.htmlhttp://www.cnn.com/2013/04/05/tech/social-media/facebook-home-privacy/index.htmlhttp://www.cnn.com/2013/04/05/tech/innovation/jay-silver-makey/index.htmlhttp://newspulse.cnn.com/section/techhttp://twitter.com/#!/alexlundry/status/91524280730402817http://www.kdnuggets.com/jobs/11/07-13-obama2012-predictive-modeling-data-mining-scientists-analysts.htmlhttp://www.kdnuggets.com/http://www.orbooks.com/our-books/wikileaks/http://personaldemocracy.com/about-ushttp://edition.cnn.com/TECH/innovation/archive/http://ireport.cnn.com/http://travel.cnn.com/http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/http://edition.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/http://edition.cnn.com/SPORT/http://edition.cnn.com/BUSINESS/http://edition.cnn.com/MIDDLEEASThttp://edition.cnn.com/LATINAMERICA/http://edition.cnn.com/EUROPE/http://edition.cnn.com/ASIA/http://edition.cnn.com/AFRICA/http://edition.cnn.com/US/http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/http://edition.cnn.com/video/http://edition.cnn.com/http://cnnespanol.cnn.com/http://edition.cnn.com/cnni/http://edition.cnn.com/CNN/Programshttp://arabic.cnn.com/?hpt=ed_Arabichttp://mexico.cnn.com/?hpt=ed_Mexicohttp://us.cnn.com/?hpt=ed_UShttp://edition.cnn.com/


2/9

Obama may be struggling in the polls and even losing supportamong his core boosters, but when it comes to the modernmechanics of identifying, connecting with and mobilizing voters, aswell as the challenge of integrating voter information with thecomplex internal workings of a national campaign, his team is wayahead of the Republican pack.

Facebook apps and other tools

Alone among the major candidates runningfor president, the Obama campaign not only

has a Facebook page with 23 million "likes"(roughly 10 times the total of all theRepublicans running), it has a Facebook appthat is scooping up all kinds of juicy factsabout his supporters.

Users of the Obama 2012 - Are You In? appare not only giving the campaign personaldata like their name, gender, birthday,current city, religion and political views, they

are sharing their list of friends and information those friends share,like their birthday, current city, religion and political views. AsFacebook is now offering the geo-targeting of ads down to ZIP code,this kind of fine-grained information is invaluable.

Inside the Obama operation, his staff members are using a powerfulsocial networking tool called NationalField, which enables everyoneto share what they are working on. Modeled on Facebook, the toolconnects all levels of staff to the information they are gathering asthey work on tasks like signing up volunteers, knocking on doors,identifying likely voters and dealing with problems. Managers canset goals for field organizers -- number of calls made, number ofdoors knocked -- and see, in real time, how people are doingagainst all kinds of metrics.

In additional to all the hard data, users can share qualitativeinformation: what points or themes worked for them in a one-on-one

conversation with voters, for example. "Ups," "Downs" and"Solutions" are color-coded, so people can see where successesare happening or challenges brewing.

And unlike an open social network, where everyone is equal,NationalField runs on a hierarchical social graph: Higher-level staffget a broader view of the state and local work below them.

For a campaign that tapped the volunteer energies of millions ofpeople in 2008 and appears to need all the help it can get in 2012,these kinds of fine-grained technologies could make a keydifference. While the Republican field (and bloggers and the press)has been focused on how their candidates are doing with socialnetworking, Obama's campaign operatives are devising a new kind

of social intelligence that will help drive campaign resources wherethey are most needed.

'Data harmonization'

It all sounds like common sense, but actually, connecting andsynchronizing the data a campaign collects from its field operation,fundraising operation and Web operation isn't a trivial task.

"The holy grail of data analysis is data harmonization, or masterdata management," Lundry said. "To have political talking to financeand finance talking to field, and data is flowing back and forth andinforming the actions of each other -- it sounds easy, but it'sincredibly hard to implement."

Most political campaigns tend to rely on consultants to carry out partor all of these functions, resulting in even greater obstacles tosharing information.

Like Lundry, Republican technology consultant Martin Avila isworried. His firm, Terra Eclipse, built Ron Paul's 2008 Web operation

Micah Sifry, co-founder of the Personal Democracy Forum.

Sponsored links

2013 Best Skin TightenersAn Unbiased Review List of The Top Performing Skin Tighteners Iwww.SkinCareSearch.com/FaceLifting

Equifax Official SiteDon't be Caught by Identity Theft. Sign Up Today fromYour Androiwww.equifax.com

12% Yield Stocks to BuyThese stocks yield 12%, yet most US investors don't know they e

www.GlobalDividends.com

http://www.web2pdfconvert.com/?ref=PDFhttp://www.web2pdfconvert.com/?ref=PDFhttps://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=111399285589490&sk=app_111399285589490


3/9

789Comments

SHARE THIS PrintEmail

We recommendFrom around the web

and works closely with the tea party movement. This year, it didsome work on Tim Pawlenty's website until that campaign folded.

Avila's flagship project is a conservative social-networking hubcalled Freedom Connector, which has grown to 150,000 members ina matter of months by giving right-wing activists tools to organizelocal meetings and discussions. Avila doesn't think any of theRepublican presidential campaigns fully understand the power ofdata today.

"They have to stop seeing a website as a piece of direct mail that

people will receive," he said. "They have to see a website as theequivalent of a campaign office in Iowa, one that is open 24/7." Andcampaigns need to know how to take quick and well-targeted actionto respond to every expression of interest they may get online, heargues, because voter interest in politicians is fickle. Simply sendinga generic e-mail reply isn't enough.

"If you can make that initial response a phone call from someone intheir town or a neighbor, asking them to come to a county fairtomorrow, that's much more powerful."

Power of personal connections

Without good data management, the different legs of a nationalcampaign can trip over each other.

"One hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing quite often incampaigns," Lundry said. "With master data management across acampaign, you can see how often you're talking to a person" andthus not bombard them with untimely or poorly targeted requests.

But, according to Avila, "Not many on the Republican side know howto technically accomplish that." Their approach to the Web, he adds,is still too much shaped by pre-Internet politicking using broadcastadvertising. "The ability to connect to people on a one-to-one basis,and encourage them to connect with one another, is way morepowerful than that."

How powerful? The 2008 Obama campaign offered an early glimpseof the potential of data-driven politics. By the end of the election, ithad amassed 13 million supporter e-mail addresses, collectednearly 4 million individual donations and tallied about 2 millionregistered users on my.BarackObama.com, the campaign's socialnetworking platform. Seventy thousand myBO members had usedthe site to conduct their own personalized fundraising campaigns.

Since 2008, enthusiasm for Obama has waned, but his onlinepresence hasn't. His base on Facebook has soared nearly six timesfrom the 4 million he had on Election Day, and his following onTwitter now stands at 10 million, dwarfing the Republican field.

So even if Obama isn't drawing millions of people off their sofas torally to his side on their own in 2012, his team has a huge amount ofraw data to work with as they build his re-election machine.

If the 2012 election comes down to a battle of inches, where a fewpercentage points change in turnout in a few key states making allthe difference, we may come to see Obama's investment inpredictive modelers and data scientists as the key to victory.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of Micah Sifry.

1.7k

Recommend More sharing

CNN Student News Transcript - April 5, 2013April 15 is Approaching: 5 Last-Minute Tax Tips

http://www.web2pdfconvert.com/?ref=PDFhttp://www.web2pdfconvert.com/?ref=PDFhttp://www.savvysugar.com/Last-Minute-Tax-Tips-15440903http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/04/studentnews/sn-transcript-fri/index.htmlhttp://www.cnn.com/2011/10/09/tech/innovation/obama-data-crunching-election/index.html#disqus_threadhttp://www.my.barackobama.com/


4/9

789 comments

Comments for this thread are now closed.

Best Community

phillypro a year ago

Long Story Short.... Obama has Smart People in his campaign.....Republicans have the Tea

123

releggneh a year agophillypro

smart people? That's why they're all under investigation. His own campaign manager

much experience as he doesn't! Just watch!

26

Dougintator a year agophillypro

Nice sting on the Tea Party. However, Obama sleeps with the fishes as far as I am conc

Street. Financial hoods and the real power behind the presidency. Obama is nothing b

14

manunyc a year agophillypro

Lol he uses the methods to identity v oter weakness and speaks exactly what suits the

9

twackman a year agophillypro

Long story short, so many of you are idiots that you would validate someone as presi

8

warights a year agophillypro

Remember, while you are in school, learning to support yourself, thieves are learning n

Smart people in his Campaing, he didn't mean with degrees, he meant they were well

6

bresson a year agophillypro

So it can all be summed up by a name @0commoncents? Like your frontrunner's goo

4

mw1979 a year agophillypro

Sweetie, Obama gonna need some Einsteins to get him re-elected because he can't rulike you are proud of the fact that he needs 'special help' to overcome such a lousy tr

some smart people running his first campaign to assuage dumb people to vote for so

Yep, this is NOTHING to gloat about, Sweetie! Thanks, and have a great day! ;-)

2

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

CNN Student News Transcript - April 3, 2013

Daily Discussion - April 8, 2013




[what's this]

(SavvySugar)

Obama Hands Back 5% Of Pay Amid Budget Cuts(Sky News)

Common Core State Standards: Academic ChildAbuse or Common Sense? (Free Enterprise)

U.S. Taxes vs. Everywhere Else: A Graphic GuideU.S. Taxes vs. Everywhere Else: A Graphic Guide(BusinessWeek)

Khloe Kardashians Skirt Flies Up Exposing HerSpanx (Spy Ghana)

The Doctor is in: Ben Carson Goes to Hannity(Urban Times)

Sponsored links

Man Cheats Credit Score1 simple trick & my credit scorejumped 217 pts. Banks hate this!www.thecreditsolutionprogram.com

Master Without BachelorOnline MA in 12 months fromleadingBritish University - free cataloguecollege.ch

Survive The Fiscal Cliff40 Million have witnessed theevidence for a 2013 crash. Prepare!www.newsmax.com

http://www.spyghana.com/khloe-kardashians-skirt-flies-up-exposing-her-spanx/http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/01/studentnews/sn-transcript-tue/index.htmlhttp://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/01/studentnews/sn-transcript-tue/index.htmlhttp://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/07/studentnews/sn-transcript-mon/http://www.web2pdfconvert.com/?ref=PDFhttp://www.web2pdfconvert.com/?ref=PDFhttp://void%280%29/http://urbantimes.co/2013/03/the-doctor-is-in-ben-carson-goes-to-hannity/http://www.spyghana.com/khloe-kardashians-skirt-flies-up-exposing-her-spanx/http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-04/u-dot-s-dot-taxes-vs-dot-everywhere-else-a-graphic-guidehttp://www.freeenterprise.com/education-workforce/common-core-state-standards-academic-child-abuse-or-common-sensehttp://news.sky.com/story/1073602/obama-to-hand-back-5-percent-of-pay-amid-budget-cutshttp://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/03/studentnews/sn-transcript-thu/index.htmlhttp://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/01/studentnews/sn-transcript-tue/index.htmlhttp://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/07/studentnews/sn-transcript-mon/http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/07/studentnews/sn-discussion-mon/index.htmlhttp://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/02/studentnews/sn-transcript-wed/index.html


5/9

hilray a year agophillypro

YO PIMP YOUR HO;S ARE OUTSIDE WAITIN ON YOU

2

MrBlues a year agophillypro

If these protestors keep at it, the next election will not matter. We need to rewrite wh

with cracking down on all the corruption.

1

laser41810 a year agophillypro

You can bet the republicans will be using data-mining in 2016.

0

SlickWilly1 a year agophillypro

Tell him to hide the Solyndra emails a little bit better. tell Holder to take one for the tea

0

JPNAmerican a year ago

Kinda hard to be tech savvy when you don't believe in science...

89

quinLee a year agoJPNAmerican

@ Snidely70448- "Herman Cain has a degree in mathematics and an MS in Computer

the very low probability of him being elected. On the other hand, it may be true that

they must denounce knowledge and true beliefs to push their agenda with the conser

24

Snidely70448 a year agoJPNAmerican

President Obama has a degree in Political Science and a law degree. Herman Cain has

Science. I wonder which has a better grasp of tech issues.

9

Passive a year agoJPNAmerican

@cnn-aef72418e11d69e6d0e9d761ff:disqus And Rick Perry has a degree in animal sc

By that logic, we should trust him over Obama on the issues of animal science.

"Evolution is a theory that's out there." -Rick Perry

6

phillypro a year agoJPNAmerican

It Doesnt Matter what kind of Degree a Republican has.....when they get around their

any "godless computotech talk"

4

jacob91 a year agoJPNAmericanHerman Cain, "I don't know if this is accurate, but ."

A politician who likes to speculate instead of displaying the facts is not an individual I w

statements. He should just go be on FOX news like Sarah Palin to stir some BS

2

sharky66 a year agoJPNAmerican

jacob91--

And Obama has only ever campaigned. What have been his qualifications for ever bei

Action, and being a Democrat.

0

sharky66 a year agoJPNAmerican

Snidely70448--

Herman Cain also built his own business, Obama was just a community organizer and

0

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

http://www.web2pdfconvert.com/?ref=PDFhttp://www.web2pdfconvert.com/?ref=PDF


6/9

Obama 2012! He is not perfect and nobody walking God's Green Earth is. But his intentions

country and is going to do what he feels is right to make sure we all have opportunity.

78

Moose1000 a year agowe111nformed

Also.....OBAMA '12!!!!!!!!!

33

bcinwi a year agowe111nformed

if you really think he care about you, your fooling yourself

19

DWWAJW a year agowe111nformed

All this guys has are feelings and intentions - No action, no leadership and no real unde

solve economic problems.

15


He has a broken Congress. All that other stuff is refuted by his intelligence and educati

I'll just keep bringing that up instead of saying "the GOP hates him b/c he's black" doe

3

sharky66 a year agowe111nformed

Moose1000--

What about Harvard Review? He was not on it for any actual accomplishments.

1

sharky66 a year agowe111nformed

we111nformed--

Communism is not for people. It is parasitic and destructive. Obama has never been

1


you're

1

f36gy a year ago

Has anyone seen a GOP jobs plan. Boehner where are the jobs you promised? Where are t

54

Sanitynow22 a year agof36gy

The republican jobs plan is along the lines of, spend more $ to uphold defense of marri

like making a deal with the devil to the GOP, doing it to uphold homophobic laws is OK.

that.

26

blamethemall a year agof36gy

Why dont you ask Reid. The House PASSED a jobs bill but Harry will not allow it to ev

discussion.

6

f36gy a year ago

GOP is turning into a cult. You have the right wing religious fanatics along with the extreme

over the place you end up with a party in disaray and Chaos. What happened to the Repub

42

f36gy a year agof36gy

RE...Polemos. It is an extreme right wing party funded by the Koch brothers. It has ra

15

sgreco1970 a year agof36gy

they transformed many years a o startin with the election of Bush Sr. he promised a

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share



7/9

11

Polemos a year agof36gy

Have you people done any research at all on the history and development of the Tea

positions on some issues, but it's confounding to me that there are still folks out there

racism.

Don't get me wrong. That sort of default mentality is useful to those who oppose the

and honesty, I would think even those who dislike the Tea Party agenda would at least

4

Countsbeans a year agof36gy

Polemos - thank you for the research and insight - I'm an independent who has also

occupy wall street activists and completely agree with your analysis.

However, there are many who (unfortunately) are not interested in facts - only emotio

3

Polemos a year agof36gy

@cnn-9f8b601eba13d9a72b2b6ce59f:disqus It's possible some Koch brothers mone

it's a completely unfounded statement to c laim that the Koch brothers fund the Tea P

political party; it's highly decentralized and many nodes of operation conduct their act

anti-Tea Party argument was made by folks who wanted to criticize the entire movemArmey's lobby ing firm) offered organization management advice to some of the larger

inaccurate to claim that FreedomWorks somehow "governs the Tea Party" in the sam

"fund the Tea Party."

As for some Tea Party groups having racist members, sure, that's true; just as many

that the Occupy Wall Street activists are intermingled with violence-prone anarchists

the Occupy Wall Street movement, as a whole, is defined by its fringe members. The s

3

sharky66 a year agof36gy

f36gy--

Oh trust me, the Democrats are JUST as cultish. You say religious for the right I say c

1

rb1121inga a year agof36gy

Like it or not, the folks in the Tea Party work AND pay taxes. These two activities are

Tea Party tenets were free of the social aspects which have been dragged in by well m

People keep pointing out the Koch brothers influence on the "right" while convenientl

been richly rewarded by Obama for his "contributions".

We need election reform in this country where corporate money, union money and fo

also need to revise our tax codes so that all participate to some degree in the financin

1

Yella919 a year ago

Meanwhile, the Republicans are st ill debating if the world is flat or round.

31

Moose1000 a year agoYella919

Don't forget about the existence of Zombies(rOn Paul)

3

mythbstr101 a year agoYella919

You should have your voting privileges revoked for extreme stupidity and an utterly j

1

Moose1000 a year agoYella919

Well some people are getting revoked b/c of the color of their skin does that make yo

WELL!

OBAMA 12!!!

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share



8/9

Load more comments

ddblah a year agoYella919

Definitely flat, man. The world is so obviously flat. Anybody who says otherwise is sho

0

SiriusVH a year ago

Good for you Mr. Obama. In the meantime, the GOPsters are busy deciding who is a 'real' C

22

Rollo2 a year ago

If Obama spent as much time and effort finding solutions to national problems as he does m

As shown with Obamacare and many of his other agenda items, he doesn't give a damn w

20

DanLopez a year agoRollo2

I find it interesting that the ones MOST opposed to extending Medicare to ALL citizens

seems like Socialism is only OK if you're 65 and over. Here's an idea, get all the old peo

Medicare benefits, THEN you can talk about how socialized medicine is bad. Until then,

paid for y ou to get through Medicare, and stop complaining about "entitlement spend

retirees like you rip off this country.

10

Iamnotfooled a year agoRollo2

Ask the auto workers. Ask the the families of 9/11 --- he got Osama. Ask most peopl

It's the insurance industry ripping us off not Obama's policies. What have the republic

8

jrm03063 a year agoRollo2

Now be a good Republican Rollo, and DIE CHEAPLY.

7

Guest a year agoRollo2

He would have done a whole lot more if the Repug weren't the Party of NO, doing wh

President" since day one, instead of doing what is right for the country. You lost, get

everyone.

6

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share



9/9

CNN en ESPAOL | CNN Chile | CNN Mxico | | | Trke 2013 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Terms of service | Privacy guidelines|Ad choices |Advertise with us| License our content |About us| Contact us| Work for us| Help CNN TV | HLN| Transcripts

Home | Video | World | U.S. | Africa | Asia | Europe | Latin America | Middle East | Business | World Sport | Entertainment | Tech | Travel | iReport

Tools & Widgets | RSS | Podcasts | Blogs | CNN Mobile | My Profile | E-mail Alerts | CNN Radio | CNN Shop | Site map | CNN Partner Hotels
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/http://edition.cnn.com/HLN/http://edition.cnn.com/CNNI/http://edition.cnn.com/help/http://www.turner.com/careers/http://edition.cnn.com/feedback/http://edition.cnn.com/about/http://edition.cnn.com/intlsyndication/http://www.cnnmediainfo.com/http://edition.cnn.com/services/ad.choices/http://edition.cnn.com/privacy.htmlhttp://edition.cnn.com/interactive_legal.htmlhttp://www.turner.com/http://www.cnnturk.com/http://www.cnn.co.jp/http://arabic.cnn.com/http://www.cnnmexico.com/http://www.cnnchile.com/http://edition.cnn.com/espanol/http://partners.cnn.com/http://edition.cnn.com/sitemap/http://www.turnerstoreonline.com/http://edition.cnn.com/audio/radio/winmedia.htmlhttp://edition.cnn.com/profile/http://edition.cnn.com/profile/http://edition.cnn.com/mobile/http://edition.cnn.com/exchange/blogs/index.htmlhttp://edition.cnn.com/services/podcasting/http://edition.cnn.com/services/rss/http://edition.cnn.com/tools/index.htmlhttp://www.ireport.com/?cnn=yeshttp://edition.cnn.com/TRAVEL/http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/http://edition.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/http://edition.cnn.com/SPORT/http://edition.cnn.com/BUSINESS/http://edition.cnn.com/MIDDLEEAST/http://edition.cnn.com/LATINAMERICA/http://edition.cnn.com/EUROPE/http://edition.cnn.com/ASIA/http://edition.cnn.com/AFRICA/http://edition.cnn.com/US/http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/http://edition.cnn.com/video/http://edition.cnn.com/

how obama's data-crunching prowess may get him re-elected

Documents