Friday New Tools Feature: Obama's TV Channel, and the Coolest Campaign Tool Ever

It has been another week of breaking new political ground for US Sen. Barack Obama's campaign. First, Politico and AdAge report that Obama has bought his own channel on the Dish Network, which reaches at least 11 million people nationwide. Obama's channel, number 73, started out looping his two-minute face-to-face ad on the economy, but is now broadcasting a range of Obama-related media, including his introductory video from the Democratic National Convention.

Obama's people also just released a new app for the iPhone and iPod touch. Tim already blogged about this yesterday, but I have to say that I've tried it out on my iPhone too and it is absolutely the coolest campaign tool I have ever seen - it actually puts the entire Obama campaign right at your fingertips. The only things  I might have liked to see: 1.) the option to send text messages to friends instead of calling, and 2.) an option to call people other than personal contacts, making regular phone-banking easier - maybe in version 1.1, guys? Finally, one feature that Tim doesn't mention in his post is the "donate" button at the bottom of the app that connects you directly to the Obama donation hotline, making it easy to contribute whenever and wherever you are moved to do so.

The Obama campaign has fully embraced 21st-century politics. To learn more about our groundbreaking work in this area, read our New Politics Institute's New Tools papers, Buy Cable and Go Mobile. They are both very well worth the read; I promise you'll learn a thing or two.