AIM: Kathie4Prez

Walk into any college dorm and you'll inevitably hear the chime of incoming and outgoing Instant Messages. During my time at Uni, IMing was the main source of communication, sometimes even between me and my suitemates while of course within voice proximity of one another. Why you might ask... well, it was discrete, easy, gave the ability of multitasking without seeming rude, and it was easier to share files.

I came across an article in Wired about people in Hollywood using IMing to find employment and realized, wow, what a great untapped resource for campaigns. IMing would be such a great way for constituents to contact the campaign directly. And supporters could easily share their support with their online buddies by putting in links to campaign donation pages in their profiles and away messages. The campaign could even set up a bot like AOL's smarterchild that answers FAQs. Another big plus is that most mobile phones and sidekicks support these applications. As Dina Piscatelli, a production manager for Errol Morris said:

"It really is something that you use nonstop," she said. "I have a Sidekick and I'm on instant messenger when I'm not at work. If I'm on location and I'm on-set and I need to talk to somebody, I immediately open my instant messenger. It's quicker than text messaging. It's quicker than e-mail."

The only main downside is that "less than 10 percent of all business people use IM, roughly 20 million worldwide. But that number is increasing steadily".

PS. that is NOT my real AIM name, so please don't IM it.