Is This Obama’s Project Management Software?

Posted on November 6, 2008 by Bruce Keener

The organization of the Obama campaign has impressed me so much that I have tried find out what software his campaign used. I thought you might find this of interest, too.

Snapshot from CentralDesktop.com In searching for “Obama campaign software,” I found an article from ReadWriteWeb on how the Obama campaign uses wiki’s. That article talks about Obama’s use of the wiki feature of the multi-featured, web-based software Central Desktop. This does not indicate with certainty that the Obama campaign used this software for project management, too, but it seems reasonable to infer that they did … after all, why use multiple systems when one is capable?

Some elements of this software system reminded me of Basecamp, the well-known, highly-used project management software from 37signals. The Central Desktop software appears to have many more features, but is also more expensive, particularly with its executive packaging. Both products are well-suited to projects involving a lot of collaboration.

I have experimented a little with Basecamp, and it offers more power than I need. As a retiree, I simply do not need its collaborative features, at least not in any of my current projects. Central Desktop, which seems to have even more power, would therefore be much more than I need. But, I am fascinated by the power of both tools, and am proud of how technologically-oriented our new President is.

Just an observation in closing: it has been my experience over the years that the more executive one’s role becomes, the more calendar-centric it becomes. The focus shifts from having a Todo list orientation to having a full calendar (of course, some calendar items are not meetings, but are time slots for reviewing reports and so on). Has that been your observation as well?

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  • Tyler Ellis

    I find your final observation intriguing. It somehow reminds me of an article I read about Steve Jobs and SEC filings regarding the use of his private jet (it must have been a surprisingly slow pre-election news day). He has places to be, I suppose, and not simply things to tick off of a list.

    It also seems that the more repetitive and specific one’s task is, the role is markedly less “executive” as you describe it. That is, why pay someone an executive’s salary for a predefined task that anyone can do. Reconciling that idea with big picture thinking and long-term planning is my problem with GTD.

    Regardless, I hope your observation is universally correct as I see my schedule (and project list) filling up faster than my traditional todo list–hopefully it leads to executive status!!

    Thanks again.

  • http://www.keenerliving.com/ Bruce Keener

    Hi Tyler.

    I also hope your growing schedule and project list boost you to executive status. My best wishes for you.

  • Alex

    Bruce, please feel free to remove this post if I am going to be too much off topic this time. I don’t know which software Obama’s campaign had in use, but here is an intriguing bit of information I have found in russian domain of IT press. The following is provided in my amateur translation:

    “It looks like U.S. President elections are going to become historical not only because of victory of an african-american candidate. They are also going to become historical because of security problems that computer systems of both campaign HQs have experienced in the process.

    This summer FBI and the White House have informed Obama’s election HQ that some foreign organisation might possibly posess confidential data about Obama’s political life and are about to use this information during their work with next U.S. administration. That reported stated as well that the mentioned cyber attack was not political espionage on behalf of McCain’s election HQ. Lately, several specialists from Obama’s HQ suspected russian and chinese hackers in launching the attack.

    At first IT personnel of Obama’s HQ have linked infamous data leak with some malware that has infiltrated HQ systems in result of a trivial fishing attack. But on the very next day U.S. Secret Service and FBI have informed Obama’s HQ that the problem is much more serious than that. In August of 2008 the same type of attack was experienced by McCain’s election HQ. It has been stated that Obama’s HQ have managed to stop the data leak, after which security policy on HQ’s systems were properly tightened. FBI have refused to give any comments on the subject so far.”

    By the way, russian hackers community have appreciated that information with a lot of humor, suggesting that U.S. government has tried to hack itself once again. It’s good to throw in some tension to make elections even more dramatic at the face of external security threat being one of the key points in both candidates campaign. It’s good to have russians and chinese at hand, too, so it’s never a problem to find whom to blame, just in case. Anyway it’s good to see the elctions have safely ended with an inspiring result.

  • http://www.keenerliving.com/ Bruce Keener

    Very interesting, Alex.
    I am actually surprised we haven’t seen more damage from cyber attacks on many fronts.