Stating the Obvious: Facebook Friends Do Not = Votes

It's a HUGE pet peeve of mine that so much reporting on technology and the youth vote boils down to "Obama has more friends on social networks, giving him a lock on the youth vote." That's really the equivalent of saying that "Obama gave out more bumper stickers than McCain so Obama will win the youth vote." It totally misses the fact that Obama's success with youth is much deeper, rising from his campaign's ability to convert those friends into online donors, virtual phone-bankers, and self-organizing, offline activists.

As an antidote to that kind of reporting, I want to point everyone to Sarah Lai Stirland's excellent Wired News article about Obama's use of technology. It's one of the best pieces I've read this year describing how the campaign's technology infrastructure informs and amplifies traditional campaign field work.