Plone Metrics Endorses Obama

One would think that a software mensuration blog with a severe Plone advocacy leaning wouldn't have much to say about the U.S. political process, but I've even got a spin on that. Today I'd like to endorse Barack Obama for the Democratic party nomination and, eventually, for the Presidency. This isn't exactly the United Auto Workers or Teamsters in terms of the number of votes it will pull in, but we'll see.

I'd like to bring a little rigor to the process and justify this with some stats, as well as point people to a couple very interesting websites. Let's start with my all-time favorite since 2003, http://www.electoral-vote.com/. The Votemaster, Prof. Andrew S. Tanenbaum, puts up a wide variety of maps of the political process and collects all the available polling data under one roof. His analyses are always insightful even if his prognoses are not always correct.

Then this election cycle there's techPresident, where most of today's numbers are coming from. TechPresident is tracking links, friends, demands, traffic, members, and video downloads from a variety of sources.

			Obama		Clinton		Edwards
MySpace		x10^3	211.0		158.0		50.0
YouTube		x10^6	6.6		3.7		4.1
Facebook		x10^3	186.0		57.0		29.0
Technorati		x10^3	7.5		6.6		2.0
Eventful		x10^3	48.5		12.6		12.0
Hitwise		%	38.0		26.0		22.0
Meetup		x10^3	3.6		1.2		1.8

Obama has clear leadership in every measure. Edwards is behind Clinton in all except Meetup. This may be explained by Obama's high polling numbers with young voters. But the main reason for backing Obama goes back to two important concepts:

1. Base decisions on requirements
2. Vote for your job

My key requirement is that a candidate be technologically literate and have a robust, well thought-out IT policy that embraces an open Internet, universal broadband, and increased computer education. My job is in International Relations and IT with a good chunk of educational activity thrown in, so these two precepts combine to attract me to Obama.

Read it for yourself at http://www.barackobama.com/issues/technology/, where he has a lengthy policy statement. Of the other front-runners, none have such an in-depth position. Compare the above with:

• Clinton (http://www.hillaryclinton.com/feature/innovation/), who emphasizes science and engineering with only a paragraph towards support for broadband.
  
• Edwards (http://www.johnedwards.com/issues/innovation/), which while positive, doesn't have the depth of IT emphasis that Obama articulates.
  

And for those of you who wonder why I'm a staunch Democrat, it goes back to #2--Vote for your job. I work at the Cooperative Monitoring Center, a place where collaborative international endeavors try to smooth out regional and global security problems. That's why I build Plone portals for civil society activists in the Middle East. I'm voting for more multi-nationalism, more diplomacy, and a bigger budget for non-military solutions for international security.

For a parting shot, I'd like to add this link (http://www.usatoday.com/news/pdf/obama-tech-support-nov-15-2007.pdf) to last November's story that lists a large number of technology leaders who have endorsed Obama.