It seems clear that while the Obama campaign was built on many approaches some traditional to US politics for generations and others that have been evolving at least since Move-on this will be the first time a successful presidential candidate owes as much to a decentralized online movement of activists and their action as he does to the many volunteers who will have toiled away at campaign offices as they have for generations. But the online networks are significantly different from the kinds of volunteers politicians have depended on in the past. Traditionally a candidate thanks the volunteers, closes the offices and everyone goes home until called upon next campaign. The online communities that have been built around Obama's campaign for fundraising, activism, volunteer recruitment and the like have come to expect more and have gotten involved because they feel they are participating in a movement to change the US in fundamental ways. As Warren pointed out the first thing Obama did after winning was to send these people an email. This network cannot be rolled up and reignited in 4 years - this is not the way online social networks work nor would it be the best use of a huge resource for connecting with a large segment of the US population and more importantly engaging people in a political process that has become distant to the average citizen to put it mildly. However, this is new territory for a President and one with as much potential to go terribly wrong for him as it has to reinvigorate participation in democratic processes and generate new forms of political engagement.

How Obama relates to this network may be as important to how he governs as how he relates with the Senate and Congress.