Obama boosters urge greater role for Web

By Alex Dobuzinskis

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 Web sites 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.