US presidential hopefuls reliance on the internet for their 2008 campaigns extends to it telling them where they should next hold their rallies.

Eventful Demand, a service offered by the events website eventful.com, is used by more than 12,000 musicians to help them plan tours according to where their fanbase is located. Fans “vote” for bands to visit their cities, revealing where they are most popular.

Now the tool is being embraced by presidential candidates, says Jordan Glazier, Eventful’s chief executive.

A rally of 20,000 people in Atlanta for Barack Obama was fired by Eventful requests. Campaign managers for John Edwards, Jim Gilmore, Barack Obama and Ron Paul use Eventful as well as supporters of Sam Brownback, Hillary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Gravel and John McCain.

TechPresident.com now tracks Eventful requests alongside Flickr photos, MySpace friends, Facebook supporters and YouTube videos as measures of candidate’s online activity and impact.

“They are all about online activity, we stand alone in providing an online service that translates into live events,” says Mr Glazier.

"Eventful Demand could be to 2008 what Meetup was to 2004," agrees Micah Sifry, co-founder of TechPresident.

With MySpace able to track online donations and offer fundraising tools, the online world is providing the political oxygen of money and support that could extend the life of many a campaign.

May 29th, 2007 in Internet | Permalink