BBC article about campaigning on social networking sites

[T_i_B]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7218291.stm

In many ways, politics is all about social networking - getting in touch with people, talking to them, and signing them up to your cause.

So, it might not come as a surprise that in the 2008 US presidential elections, online social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace are playing a big role.

Facebook was only in its fledgling stages during the last presidential election in 2004. This time round, all the major candidates have a presence on the site which even co-hosted the televised presidential debates in New Hampshire.

"What we've done is taken this two-hour debate format and extended it to a six or 12-month debate dialogue among users who care about these issues," says Dan Rose, Vice President of Business Development at Facebook. "We're giving them a way to communicate with their friends about the issues that matter to them. Users can notify their friends of which politicians they support, which makes that a very public action and allows users to talk about why they support those politicians," says Mr Rose.