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Election day in cyberspace 

Is the Internet the only way to get into the White House? If that were the case, the election would have been decided a long time ago. Recently, John McCain naively said that he too would like to learn how to google. At that point in time, Barack Obama already had a thousand videos loaded onto his website and on YouTube. Shot in casual close-ups, the videos show Obama delivering passionate speeches. More than anything else, the clips present Obama as a master of a new form of image building and self-promotion: digital self-design. That's how you play the game today: either you become a brand as a web personality, or you disappear into an anonymous existence, best surviving as a regular in the local pub.

Creating an image is more than just perfecting the bridge of your nose or getting a tailor-made suit, two of the classic methods in self-optimisation. Image building on the Internet requires you to design your entire personality: your favourite films and music, your favourite restaurants, your cooking skills, your golf handicap, … Then there is also the question: what other websites am I linked to? And most importantly perhaps: do I have the right friends?  And how many? There's no getting around that one even in the modern digital world: attractiveness depends to a large extent on social success. No matter how much your profile may say that you are caring, witty and sympathetic: if the only friend you've got on the site is a guy called "Sam", who happens to be your brother-in-law, then your presence is rather bleak.

Those who are unable to brush up their image on their own seek professional help. Companies such as reputationinsurance.com are glad to help. They can link you to prestigious websites, rework comments to make them positive, and, of course, polish up your CV. Humans are hungry for recognition. If the recognition I get depends on how I present myself on the Web, then my ego getting a boost or suffering a setback is coupled with my mania for collecting prestigious links. I simply have to grow into a giant pixel tree and have the maximum number of prominent people as my branches in order to be someone.

Barack Obama pretty much got the gist of this. Yet, things can get nasty for him: he may pack the Web with the most enchanting images, but even the most influential persons have only limited control over their pictures. Cyber-pirates are capable of placing images virtually in other web spots - turning a messiah into a devil in a flash. That's the way democracy functions in cyberspace. It wants us to feed it with our images. At the same time, it wants absolute control over our image, copying, distorting, and consuming it at its whim.

Well, we cannot show any compassion for Obama. We are in no better position. For mortals like us, every day is election day on the Web.

Ludwig Hasler