Two weeks before the 2007 general election, Noel Dempsey told colleagues at the Fianna Fail campaign centre that if national research reporting a reduction in the party’s popularity was correct, he would never canvass again. The findings differed from what people were telling him on doorsteps, the minister said.

And he was right — which is proof that the key to winning votes is to know your electorate and be able to mobilise them. By contrast, “Yes” supporters appeared to lose touch with the electorate during the recent Lisbon treaty referendum campaign.

The use of technology should be considered when the Dail conducts a post-mortem on the result next month. TDs could usefully compare the Irish rejection of Lisbon with Barack Obama’s victory in the Democratic party’s primary, which highlighted the internet’s potential as an effective mass-media tool.

“Yes” campaigners failed to recognise the benefits of the internet’s Web 2.0 development. This is a term used to describe a trend which enhances information-sharing and collaboration among users. It has changed how people use the web, with social networking, user-generated content and information sharing, all based on the principle of inclusion and community building.

In political terms, Web 2.0 empowers people. They become active participants in national debates rather than passive recipients of information. It’s the perfect medium for a bottom-up approach to opinion shifting and it has come of age.

Obama, an early proponent of strategic online social networking, revolutionised how campaigns are funded by seeking small donations from a large base. This ensured the well was not dry when it came to making a second approach.

He started a grassroots social movement that campaigned for him.

He used his online presence to communicate on issues that affected people locally as well as nationally. He unified disparate groups across great geographic distances. He empowered people and trusted them.

Or rather, he didn’t: he simply provided the space and tools on My.barackobama. com. Users created their own website based around Obama’s messages. They could create their own “dashboard”, view their “neighbourhood”, chat with friends, write a blog, invite others to create groups, and fundraise.

Obama is still setting standards with a new website, Fightthesmears.com, in which he encourages the public to submit any rumour they may have heard about him so that it can be dispelled and replaced with the truth. Users can then “share the truth” by sending it to friends. Simple, effective, revolutionary.

The striking difference between this strategic use of the web as an opinion-shifting medium and the Yes to Lisbon campaign is that the latter adopted a top-down approach to information provision. The bottom-up approach of Obama is predicated on trusting people, transparency of debate and social inclusion. The Yes argument implied a mistrust of open debate. The official site, Lisbonreferendum.org, was a model of old communications with no call for visitor input, no forum for debate.

The closest our government came to the Web 2.0 model was through the Rockthevote.ie site which, although run by a limited company, was funded via the Department of Foreign Affairs. Aimed at young people,with links to pages on the buzz-sites Bebo, Facebook and MySpace, it only encouraged young people to vote.

The “No” campaign deployed a bottom- up approach. Libertas’ website was an effective model of social inclusion and opinion shifting. It invited visitors to join up, volunteer, donate and stay informed. It offered syndicated feeds of its content, and it linked to its space on Facebook. Using this overall approach it invited people into the debate and they got involved in the issue.

An examination of other websites breaks down neatly: “Yes” equates to top- down, “we’re going to tell you how it is”; and “No” equates to bottom-up, “join us, share your views and spread the word”.

The pattern in that breakdown reinforces the Eurobarometer poll results which show that 65% of tech-savvy under-25s voted No, while 42% of over 55s said Yes.

While we cannot definitively say that a Web 2.0 approach contributed to the “No” campaign win, we can certainly argue that its absence was a factor in why the “Yes” side lost.

Paul McDonnell of Carr Communications has worked on several digital-communications projects for state agencies, government departments and private sector companies.

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