Obama's Facebook Playbook

If the Barack Obama campaign's web presence reminds you of Facebook, there's a reason...

If the Barack Obama campaign's web presence reminds you of Facebook, there's a reason.

The man behind my.barackobama.com is Chris Hughes ’06, one of Facebook's founders.

As a New York Times article on Hughes explains, he was a roommate of Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, who left Harvard to work on the site full time. Hughes worked for the company after graduation, but departed in February 2007 to become Obama's "online organizing guru" (his official title, according to the Times).

The campaign has won plaudits for its innovative use of the Internet, including using the Web to track and organize volunteers, build automated polling-place locator software to inform voters where they should cast their ballots, and launch fightthesmears.com, a site dedicated to debunking myths and rumors about Obama.

Read the rest of the Times article here.

Most popular

Before a data center is built, Francesca Dominici and Le Xie aim to predict costs to the grid, the air, and the neighbors next door.

All That’s Unseen charts the Harvard graduate’s uneasy journey from Appalachia to Cambridge and back.  

Singer Elisa Smith’s whiskey-soaked voice and subversive feminism is part of the genre’s urban shift.

Explore More From Current Issue

Singer performing on stage with a guitar, wearing a hat, and surrounded by band instruments.

Singer Elisa Smith’s whiskey-soaked voice and subversive feminism is part of the genre’s urban shift.

Vibrant urban scene at dusk featuring a mural on a building and illuminated structures.

The planned opening of the Goel Center in Allston for performances will be in spring of 2027.

A profile illustration of a man surrounded by colorful, whimsical text in multiple languages.

For both American and international students, growing up is like learning a new language.