Obama Transition Team Staffs Up Internet Outreach Crew

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Obama Transition Team Staffs Up Internet Outreach Crew
By Greg Sargent - November 12, 2008, 4:55PM


Now this is a good sign: The Obama transition team has just signed up two leading Web types for the transition's Internet outreach team, a welcome indication that the Obama team is moving to transfer its astonishing online successes during the campaign over to the world of governing.

A transition source tells us that that Macon Phillips, a key Obama campaign Web official, has been tapped to head new media for the transition, and Jesse Lee, a leading Web operative who handled Rahm Emanuel's DCCC internet outreach operation during the 2006 take-back of Congress, has been hired to do online communications. Obama's transition team confirms the hires.

Phillips helped run Obama's general election new media shop, which raised huge sums of money and used social networking tools to organize in all sorts of innovative ways.

Lee, meanwhile, is highly regarded by liberal bloggers. He wrote the first-ever blog for the House Speaker, and in the closing days of the campaign he did online rapid response for the DNC, helping the Obama camp frame its message outreach to the blogosphere.

One key thing to watch will be how the Obama White House builds its online operation at a time of rapid expansion in the world of Web journalism.