From SiliconValley.com

For candidates embracing the brave new world of online politics, the Internet giveth and the Internet taketh away.

The 2008 presidential campaign is revving up earlier than ever, and candidates are using new online tools or techniques already used by advocacy groups and non-profits. They include popular social networking sites to organize, a growing reliance on high-profile bloggers and use of widely shared video — such as the Webcasts of Democrats Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama announcing their campaigns.

‘Web campaigning is becoming highly sophisticated, a central part of any candidate’s plan to win,’ said Rick White, a former Republican congressman from the Seattle area and a consultant on tech issues.

White said the ‘next big thing’ in online politics may be carefully targeted ads, including video clips that will be different than conventional TV spots.

‘Each campaign is looking for the best ways to use Web 2.0 applications,’ said Julie Barko Germany, deputy director of the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet at George Washington University.

As evidence of the growing importance, Germany notes that the Webmaster consigned to the bottom rungs of a campaign a few years ago is now an ‘online communities strategist’ who can be just as influential as any other adviser to the candidate.

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