From YouTube to text messaging, candidate Barack Obama's team con-nects to voters.

從YouTube到傳文字簡訊，候選人歐巴馬的人馬已和選民連上線。

Amid the cramped, crowded cubi-cles inside Sen. Barack Obama's cam-paign headquarters in Chicago, sandals are as ubiquitous as iPods. Two young guys in shorts and T-shirts throw a football around. An electoral college map (California 55, Texas 34, etc.) is taped to the wall in the men's bathroom. A BlackBerrying staffer sneezes and blurts out, "Whew! I think I'm allergic to hope!"

在參議員歐巴馬位於芝加哥競選總部內狹窄擁擠的小隔間裡，拖鞋和iPod一樣隨處可見。兩位穿著短褲和Ｔ恤的年輕小伙子正在拋橄欖球。一張註明選舉人團的地圖（加州55，德州34，等等）用膠帶黏貼在男廁牆壁上。一名負責黑莓機的人員打噴嚏後脫口而出：「哎喲！我想我大概對希望過敏！」

This is Triple O -- Obama's on-line operation.

這裡簡稱三O，「歐巴馬線上作業」頭文字簡寫。

Five years ago, Howard Dean's on-line-fueled campaign cemented the Internet's role as a political force. Ex-actly how big a force no one was quite sure. But this year's primary season, spanning six months, proved that online buzz and activity can translate to offline, on-the-ground results. Indeed, the Web has been crucial to how Obama raises money, communicates his message and, most important, recruits, energizes and turns out his supporters. With less than three months to go before the election, Triple O is the envy of strategists in both parties, redefining the role that an online team can play within a campaign.

五年前，〔角逐民主黨黨內提名的候選人〕迪恩靠電腦連線發動選戰，強化了網路扮演政治力量的角色，但沒有人確知這股力量到底多大。今年初選季持續進行了六個月，總算讓人見識到網路論壇和活動已經足以衝擊離線和實際選情。沒錯，網路對歐巴馬如何募款，如何傳達他的信念，及最重要的，如何吸收、激勵和鼓動支持他的選民站出來起關鍵作用。距這次美國總統大選不到三個月，「歐巴馬線上作業」已引起兩黨策士眼紅，並重新形塑網路小組在一場選戰中可以扮演的角色。

"Theirs is an operation that every-one will be studying for campaigns to come," says Peter Daou, who was Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's Internet director. Adds Andrew Rasiej, founder of Personal Democracy Fo-rum, an online hub of how politics and technology intersect: "Obama's success online is as much about how our society has changed, how our media ecology has changed, just in the past four years." Rasiej describes how his 81-year-old father, an Obama supporter, has taken to e-mailing videos of the senator's speeches and policy plans to 50 of his friends. "In one afternoon, my dad is reaching friends who in the past would have taken him a whole year to be in contact with. That's not nec-essarily Obama. That's the Internet," he continues. "But you have to give credit where credit is due: Obama's Internet team is doing a hell of a job taking advantage of all these changes. They've basically leapfrogged not just the Clinton and McCain campaigns but also the mainstream media when it comes to reaching their supporters."

紐約州聯邦參議員希拉蕊‧柯林頓的網路指導達奧說：「他們那套作業，勢必成為未來選戰的必修課程。」「個人民主論壇」這個探討政治和科技如何交互影響的網路樞紐創辦人拉斯也說：「歐巴馬上網成功不只凸顯我們的社會如何轉型，也凸顯我們的媒體生態過去四年中如何改變。」拉斯形容他81歲的父親，由於支持歐巴馬，利用電子郵件傳送這位參議員演講錄影帶和政策計畫給50位朋友。「就在一個下午，我老爸就和這些朋友接上頭，過去恐怕要花一整年才能聯絡上。但那不只限於歐巴馬，這都是網路的功勞，」他又說。「但論功行賞，歐巴馬的網路小組在善加利用所有這些轉變上表現令人激賞。基本上，他們不只超越柯林頓和馬侃的選戰策略，也使主流媒體在和支持選民接觸上黯然失色。」

Joe Trippi, who's widely credited with Dean's pioneering use of the Web, says: "I like to say that we at the Dean campaign were the Wright brothers. We put this rickety thing together and got it off the ground. But the folks in Obama's online team are the Apollo project. The question is, are they Apollo 8 or Apollo 11 If they're Apollo 11, they're going to launch a guy and land him in the White House."

公認在推動迪恩最早使用網路上功不可沒的崔里皮說：「我只想說，我們這些投入迪恩選戰的算是萊特兄弟，我們把這個剛起步還搖搖晃晃的玩意兒拼湊在一塊兒，並使它起飛。但歐巴馬網路小組那群人是阿波羅計畫。問題在他們是阿波羅八號還是十一號？如果是阿波羅十一號，他們就會把一個人發射升空，坐上白宮寶座。」

The launch began in early 2007, when Joe Rospars, a veteran of the Dean campaign and the Democratic National Committee, was hired as new-media director. In the following weeks, the 27-year-old assembled a group that included one of the co-founders of Facebook, an award-winning CNN producer and a text-messaging enthusiast. Barack-Obama.com was born.

架網行動始於2007年初，曾幫迪恩競選也是民主黨全國委員會老將的羅斯帕斯被請來當新任媒體中心主管。隨後幾周，27歲的羅斯帕斯召集了一群人，其中包括Facebook共同創辦人，一位得過獎的CNN製片，和一位瘋傳簡訊的人。就這樣BarackObama.com誕生了。

Forget CNN, Fox News, NBC et al. Obama stars on his own channel, and it's headed by Kate Al-bright-Hanna, a self-described YouTube addict who runs Obama's video team. So far, Albright-Hanna's group has shot more than 2,000 hours' worth of footage and uploaded about 1,110 videos on Obama's YouTube channel-- more than four times what's available on Sen. John Mc-Cain's channel. For months, Obama's 37-minute race speech following the furor over the remarks of his former pastor has remained the channel's most watched video, seen more than 4.7 million times. But what's striking about Obama's channel is the breadth of its content. Though most of the videos are centered on the candidate -- his speeches and rallies, his TV and online ads, his TV appearances -- many others feature his supporters.

不管CNN、福斯新聞網和NBC報什麼新聞，歐巴馬在他自己的頻道上是主角，同時由凱特‧歐布萊特─漢那主持，她自稱YouTube迷，主管歐巴馬影片製作小組。至今，這個小組已經拍了2000多個小時影帶，同時上傳約1,110支歐巴馬的影帶到YouTube上，幾乎是馬侃參議員頻道的四倍。幾個月來，歐巴馬在他過去的牧師發表的言論引起軒然大波後所錄製的37分鐘競選演說，仍是他個人頻道上最多人看的影帶，點閱率超過470萬次。但歐巴馬頻道最突出的還是其內容的廣度。雖然大半影帶以歐巴馬為核心人物，包括他的演說和競選造勢活動，他的電視和網路廣告，他出現在電視上的鏡頭，但仍有很多其他帶子以支持他的選民為主。

Texting is also playing a crucial role in the campaign's obsession with growing its database. Throughout last year, Scott Goodstein, 34, sent at least a dozen texts to collect names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Most important, the message came with "an ask," meaning users were asked to do something upon receiving it, like "C U @ the Rally". Last week, the cam-paign texted its supporters to say that it will announce its vice presidential pick via text. Days later, Goodstein launched Obama Mobile, a site where users can access the latest Obama news and download videos on their cellphones -- a first for a presidential candidate.

在這場愈來愈對資訊著迷的選戰中，傳簡訊也扮演關鍵角色。去年全年，34歲的古德斯坦至少傳十餘封簡訊給他收集的名字、電話號碼和伊媚兒郵址。最重要的，傳送的訊息多半帶著「一項請求」，也就是請使用者收到簡訊後採取某種行動，例如：「造勢場合見。」上周，歐巴馬陣營還傳簡訊給支持他的選民，表示會透過簡訊宣布副總統人選。幾天後，古德斯坦推出「歐巴馬手機」這個網址，用戶可以收到歐巴馬最新的選情戰報，並下載影片到手機上，首開有史以來總統候選人先例。

If Triple O had a motto, it would be: "Meet the voters where they're at."

如果「歐巴馬線上作業」有什麼座右銘，那就是：「和選民在最貼近他們的地方相見。」

（取材自華盛頓郵報）