Business Week has a string of podcasts it put together monthly on “innovations impacting top execs”. Lots of good material here, including many on Web 2.0. There’s something on widgets, corporate wikis, vblogs (video blogs)…and more. See here:
One interesting aspect of the campaign for president of the United States is the use of social computing. The Obama campaign in particular seems to be adept at using the technology to suit their purposes. For example, there is a story here about how they are…
“…using software from business intranet provider Central Desktop to manage “precinct captains” — volunteers who get out the vote and spread the campaign message in specific precincts across the state. The campaign started using the software during the run up to an earlier nominating contest in California — the nation’s most populous state. “The Web-based collaboration platform combined with a strong organized grass-roots effort, created unprecedented public involvement that is revitalizing politics in America,” said Patrick DeTemple, the California Data & Systems Manager for the Obama campaign. “Not since Bobby Kennedy has there been such an extensive Precinct Captain operation for a presidential candidate in California.”
Central Desktop is a wiki-based collaboration tool … the Obama campaign is using it to power a public facing wiki to organize information for precinct captains in Texas. According to Garcia, the campaign is using the software on their own without much input beyond basic support from Central Desktop ” ‘
Even if you don’t agree with everything Patrick DeTemple stated, it is clear that political parties in the U.S. and elsewhere are taking advantage of Web 2.0 technology and approaches to be more effective. For more on this, see:
How the Barack Obama Campaign Uses Wikis to Organize Volunteers - ReadWriteWeb