Obama Online Tool Targets Volunteers

President Barack Obama's re-election campaign on Wednesday plans to introduce its online organizing tool for 2012, hoping to spur the volunteer enthusiasm that carried the president to the White House four years ago. The program, known as Dashboard, has been in development since last year and builds off technology used by the campaign in 2008. It is meant to replicate a campaign field office, allowing volunteers to do phone banking, organize events and talk to campaign leaders from their laptops or smartphones. "The immediacy of Dashboard really sets it apart from 2008," said Obama campaign spokeswoman Katie Hogan. "It provides a good volunteer experience online that is directly tied to our field-operation goals." "The investment we've seen the Obama campaign put into this project suggests they're convinced it's a game changer," said Micah Sifry, co-founder of TechPresident, a website that tracks online campaigning. "We're living in an age of mass participation in politics."