Obama boosters urge greater role for Web

Amber Lee Ettinger, better known as Obama Girl, arrives during the 12th Annual Webby Awards held in New York June 10, 2008. The annual awards, known as the ''Oscars of the Internet,'' honor excellence on the Internet.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Barack Obama had a brigade of Web denizens backing his election, from comedy star Obama Girl to throngs of young voters, and now they are clamoring for the Internet to play a big role in his presidency.

Early in his transition to the White House, the Democratic president-elect seems to be complying, and his actions could signal a change in the way U.S. citizens expect their political leaders to communicate with them in the future, experts said.

Obama, who has become the first president-elect with a MySpace page, has bolstered his online presence since last week's election by creating a site called Change.gov.

The site has news updates on the transition and is also the place to apply for jobs in the new administration, which takes over from President George W. Bush on January 20.

With his high-profile online presence, Obama faces the higher expectations of supporters who, during the election campaign, became accustomed to regular updates in video and text form and who turned social networking websites YouTube, MySpace and Facebook into cyber-hangouts for pro-Obama activism.

"It doesn't stop here, they are going to expect government in general to be operating under different rules now," said Michael Wood, vice president of TRU, a research company that tracks how young people use the Internet.

"They're going to want a window into the world of what's going on here, and that's all very different from anything that we've ever seen before," Wood said.

Republican candidate John McCain also used the Web to build support, but Obama often outshined him online, experts said.

Obama's Facebook page, boasting a list of his favorite movies and updates on campaign news, became the most popular page on the site, with more than 2.5 million online supporters.

The Obama campaign posted 1,800 videos on the video sharing site YouTube, compared to fewer than 350 for McCain.

OBAMA GIRL 2.0?

Obama Girl, the alias of model Amber Lee Ettinger, also became a YouTube star by appearing in comedy videos about Obama. The videos were seen more than 70 million times.

With all she has done to lip-sync the praises of Obama, Ettinger, 26, said she would like an invitation to his inauguration. And she said more online videos are forthcoming from Obama Girl and her comedy group, Barely Political.

"I definitely think we have four more years of good material to use, whatever's going on with him I'm sure we can come up with our own comedic spin to it," she said.

The team at Barely Political made a name for itself during the campaign by making quick and cheap videos for YouTube and promoting them at MySpace. Similarly, Obama used his own MySpace page to win supporters during the campaign.

"We expect and hope that he continues to use his page in the White House and create a continuous dialogue with these millions of Americans that are involved on MySpace," said Lee Brenner, political director at MySpace.

An Obama representative declined to comment on the president-elect's online strategy.

But Obama has pledged to involve Americans in his decision-making, by giving them five days to comment online on any non-emergency legislation before he signs it. And he has said he plans to appoint a chief technology officer.

The Obama administration might get some Web inspiration from Britain, where since 2004 the government has run a site called Directgov, www.direct.gov.uk, that gives users a one-stop-shop for information on public services.

Brenner said that with the Internet, Obama has an opportunity to reach out to Americans in new ways.

"In the past they did a weekly radio address. Why not do a weekly blog that goes out to millions and millions of people online?" he said.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Mary Milliken and Frances Kerry)