I noticed this graphic dur­ing my first visit to Obama’s web­site. In case the can­di­date needed another means of inspir­ing poten­tial sup­port­ers, he now has the techno-teen and dynamic media crowd. Howard Dean may have pio­neered the use of the Internet for cam­paign fundrais­ing, but Obama is the first I’ve seen to enlist SMS. (I was unable to find any SMS fea­tures adver­tised on Clinton’s site.)

With the Wyoming pri­maries com­ing up on Saturday, I vis­ited Obama’s site again today, just to see if he had any spe­cial mes­sages for sup­port­ers in that state. Notice that a dif­fer­ent code is pre­sented on the Wyoming page:

I thought I’d test this out and try to fig­ure out how the sys­tem works.

Scott: MA

66262: Thanks for join­ing Massachusetts for Obama, For addi­tional Obama updates Reply JOIN to this msg. Text HELP for help. STOP to quit. Std charges may apply.

Scott: Join

66262: Welcome to Obama Mobile NEWS & UPDATES. Reply with your zip­code to get local Obama info. Text HELP for help, STOP to quit. Std charges may apply.

Looks like the sys­tem is using all best prac­tice rec­om­men­da­tions, includ­ing dou­ble opt-in, sup­port for required SMS com­mands (e.g. HELP and STOP), and remind­ing us that charges may apply.

Scott: 02139 [A Massachusetts zip]

66262: Thank you for updat­ing your zip code with Obama Mobile. We will con­tact you shortly about upcom­ing events and local news. Send HELP for help & Stop to quit.

I sud­denly real­ize that the cam­paign will not care about Massachusetts again for months, and I likely will not receive any updates. Help!

Scott: Help

66262: Obama for America! More info on http://barackobama.com/ To stop, text STOP to 62262 or call 877−822−5093

Okay, the “help” wasn’t that help­ful, and the attempt to com­mu­ni­cate excite­ment using an excla­ma­tion mark falls flat. (It’s try­ing to a evoke a dif­fer­ent kind of excite­ment than “Ok C U L8r!”) Let’s try send­ing the main signup code of HOPE.

Scott: hope

66262: You are already sub­scribed to Obama Mobile. Text HELP for help, STOP to quit. Std charges may apply. More info at www.barackobama.com/mobile

At this point we can infer that you can sign up for “Obama Mobile” by send­ing essen­tially any text mes­sage to 66262. Your mes­sage could say “hope” or could con­tain a state abbre­vi­a­tion -- it doesn’t really mat­ter. Let’s tell it we’re in Wyoming, since that’s where all the action is this weekend.

Scott: Wy

66262: Welcome to WY for Obama Mobile. Text HELP for help, STOP to quit. Std charges may apply. More info at www.barackobama.com/mobile

Scott: 82601 [A zip in Casper, Wyoming, where the can­di­date is cam­paign­ing today]

66262: Thank you for updat­ing your zip code with Obama Mobile. We will con­tact you shortly about upcom­ing events and local news. Send HELP for help & Stop to quit.

Okay, I guess that’s it. Now, we wait. In the mean­time, we can think about how Obama Mobile appears to be a state­less server, which means that it’s not smart enough to remem­ber what I said a minute ago when I say some­thing else now. Each exchange is an inde­pen­dent con­ver­sa­tion, which I think is typ­i­cal for SMS sys­tems today. I want to research this fur­ther, though, since I ulti­mately want to develop an SMS appli­ca­tion of my own.

One other thing to note is that Obama Mobile also offers ring­tones for your phone. Yes, Obama ring­tones. My favorite is #12: “Hi, this is Barack Obama ask­ing you to answer the phone.” Yes, it really is his voice, and yes, you bet he felt silly record­ing that, but hey, what­ever it takes to win, right, Hillary?

Political com­men­tary aside, it’s fas­ci­nat­ing to see how every­one today becomes a media pro­ducer at some point. Candidates used to make sound bites in front of cam­eras -- now they’re doing it in record­ing stu­dios, and they’ll beam the audio straight to your phone. We’re still con­sumers, but now we’re pro­duc­ers, too, whether we want to be or not.

I’ll update this post if and when any TXTs from OBMA come in. It’ll be inter­est­ing to see what he has to say.

Updates: Received this mes­sage at 4:17 pm MST today:

Ready to cau­cus for Barack tomor­row? Fwd this msg & make sure every­one knows their cau­cus time and loca­tion. Info: 866−675−2008 ext 4 or WY.BarackObama.com

Received this mes­sage at 7:39 pm MST:

Our moment is now! Fwd this msg & tell all your friends to cau­cus for Barack tomor­row. For cau­cus info call: 866−675−2008 ext 4 or http://WY.BarackObama.com.

Received on cau­cus day, Saturday, March 8, at 11:01 am MST:

Make sure every­one goes to their cau­cus today for Barack! Times change across WY. For cau­cus times call 1−866−675−2008 or visit http://WY.BarackObama.com.

Received at the end of the day, Saturday, March 8, at 6:24 pm MST:

Barack wins Wyoming & the cam­paign moves on to Mississippi for Tuesday’s pri­mary. Help us grow this move­ment for change, ask friends to text HOPE to 62262.