Social Software and Cyber Networks: Ties That Bind or Weak Associations within the Political Organization?

The 2004 U.S. Presidential election has tapped into the online medium to reach the growing demographic of online citizens. In the Democratic Party's primary season, the Howard Dean campaign organization proved to be phenomenally successful at incorporating the online medium into its fundraising and grassroots mobilization, going beyond the online organizing and fundraising success of campaigns of John McCain in 2000. Both the Dean and McCain organizations were praised for their use of the Web to organize at the "grass-roots" level as well as their accomplishment in raising money. The current paper examines the unique social network ties that are created through the use of social software (i.e. blogs, email, instant messaging, meetup.com), specifically focusing on its use by political campaigns to engage potential voters in what could be considered a growing electronic democracy. Media richness is also taken into account.