The Billion Dollar Startup: Inside Obama's Campaign Tech

Nerval's Lobster writes "A presidential campaign is many things to many people: a reason to hope in the future, a wellspring of jokes and debate fodder, an annoyance to tune out, a chance to participate in the civic process. But for a couple dozen software engineers and developers involved over the past two years in President Obama's re-election effort, a campaign was something entirely different: a billion-dollar tech startup with an eighteen-month lifespan and a mandate to ship code under extreme pressure. Speaking to a New York City audience, some of Obama for America's leading tech people—those involved in the all-important Dashboard and Narwhal projects, as well as fundraising and DevOps—characterized the experience as 'insane,' filled with unending problems and the knowledge that, at the end of the whole process, nearly everything they worked on would likely end up tossed away. This is the story of what happened, and how technologies on a massive scale can make or break campaigns."

Comments

Content free campaigning

[ShanghaiBill]

What bothered me the most about the 2012 campaign was the lack of almost any discussion of actual issues. There was almost no discussion about the fiscal cliff, entitlement reform, gun control, or any other issues that the country is now dealing with. Unfortunately, the lesson seems to be that keeping campaigns content free, and instead focusing on social media, turnout, and the "ground game", is the way to get elected, even if it isn't good for the country.

Re:Content free campaigning

[cayenne8]

What bothered me the most about the 2012 campaign was the lack of almost any discussion of actual issues. There was almost no discussion about the fiscal cliff, entitlement reform, gun control, or any other issues that the country is now dealing with.

Of course not...that wasn't in their best interest.

And the masses would actually have to *think* and try to understand tough things like "issues".

I don't think we've actually had an election where the candidates have actually addressed issues since maybe the early 80's or slightly before.

More like a 10M startup ad brokerage

[Overzeetop]

Yes, but they don't have to deal with 50 individual, winner-take-all races over several hundred markets with three hundred million voters.

And, to be fair, most of the 1.1 Billion spent by the Obama campaign was spent on advertising slots and ground game (rental, printing). This wasn't really a $1 Billion startup, but rather a conduit for $1B in spending. It's like saying your stock broker is a billion dollar operation because he directs clients 401k money for a 10,000 person corporation.

when the infrastructure and software was complete

[schlachter]

Obama turned to his team and said..."you didn't build that!"
I keed, I keed.... :)

Always has been, always will be.

[Overzeetop]

You're just now getting this? Every election is about the little shit that doesn't really matter much. It's about emotion and flash. It always has been. Look back 100 years and it will be the same thing. Look back 200. Mudslinging, character assassination, out-of-context quotes, outright lies have always been part and parcel of the political election process. Sure, we can do more and make more convincing fakes with technology (autotune the news, anyone?), but it's also easier to fact check.

Contentless politician banter is anything but a recent phenomenon.

Re:Always has been, always will be.

[ShanghaiBill]

Every election is about the little shit that doesn't really matter much.

Plenty of elections, even recent elections, have put big issues in front of the voters. Even Obama, in 2008, made health insurance reform an issue in his campaign. This election the only issue seemed to be whether taxes would go up on 1% of the taxpayers or 0%. This campaign was unusually content free.

Look back 100 years and it will be the same thing. Look back 200.

Read some history books. Look at the election of 1864. You think that was content free? "Continued the civil war till victory" vs "peace through negotiated secession" seems like a pretty big issue to me. Big issues were raised in the presidential campaigns in 2008, 2004, 1992, 1980, 1972, 1968, 1964, etc.

Re:Always has been, always will be.

[TapeCutter]

Are you for real? You complain about "class warfare" and in the same paragraph basically claim that a class of people (successful business men) are the only class of people who can be trusted to lead properly. And you don't see a glaring contradiction?

Please don't take the above as an insult, my intention is to be blunt, not insulting. Politics requires "critical thinking skills" more so than science but rarely are they applied with the same rigor. The reason you fall for the "class warfare" bullshit is because your vote with your gut, not your brain. You actually need to use both, know your emotional triggers and question your own basic assumptions, such as the assumption you display in the post that says something like "governments and corporations are very similar", once you accept that assumption as gospel, what do you then do to balance the power that you have handed over to wealthy merchants?

Just remember one fact when people talk about "class warfare" - ALL governments redistribute wealth and they all claim their particular formula is for the "common good", it's not "class warfare" it's their purpose, it is the very definition of civilization itself. Sometimes the wealth piles up in great mounds on the "elite", sometimes it stolen and squandered by corrupt officials or angry mobs, every now and then a "booming middle class" appears as it did in the US after WW2, and is now doing in China after Mao's famines.

Yes, I have an assumption that a "booming middle class" is a GoodThing(TM), but I don't think anyone really knows exactly how to create one (please don't send me newsletters). Truth is, if you take the time to look there are good and bad ideas from all sides, politics should be about shaping society in OUR own image, that image should not be preemptively restricted to the economic heroes of of the day.

Re:when the infrastructure and software was comple

[Anonymous Coward]

I was at first taken aback when I heard the clip of "You didn't build that". I just had to go youtube the Obama speech that it came from. Wow, he was talking about the infrastructure - roads, post offices, other public services... that all businesses count on to run. His point was that some things are best done by businesses, and other things are best done by Public Sector. For example, what company would take on building and maintaining Interstate highways throughout the US? Funny the statement sounded when taken out of context.