Candidate Barack Obama built up something unique in its scale and power: a 13 million-strong email list of supporters, together with data on their beliefs and history of campaign volunteerism.

As the presidential campaign progressed, his staff proved adept at dispatching specific and geographically targeted instructions to the masses: "Call ten people in Ohio today", "Donate $5 by midnight and anonymous donor will match it", "Get out to vote" These were jobs anyone could understand. And the goal was straightforward: get the man elected.

Now we have a president who is trying to mass-email his way to a legislative victory. President Obama--more accurately, his campaign organization, now using the moniker "Organizing for America"--is deploying that list to rallying support for the stimulus package.

But you can almost hear the behind-the-scenes debate: How, exactly, is Lucy in Des Moines supposed to take action on an $800-odd billion stimulus package? What would you have her do--join in an email campaign aimed at nailing a particular Congressman to the wall? And how can we expect Frank in Utica to understand a massive bill whose contents are murky even to the people who are supposed to vote on it? Should we sell him on the fact that the stimulus bill would allow him to deduct the sales tax on his next Ford F-150?

No, the outcome has been a more nebulous campaign. Organizing for America provided a place for people to post their stories of recession angst, and encouraged them to spread their stories around to each other. This morning's missive from Obama campaign manager David Plouffe explained: "Ordinary people are telling the real story of the struggles and pressures families are facing right now. They drive home the importance of this recovery plan and the need to put it into action immediately."

The site promises: "As the recovery plan takes shape, we'll be checking back in with some of those who've shared their stories here. They'll report back on their progress, and on the progress of America's recovery from this crisis."

It can hardly be said that any of this has a bearing on the actual legislative process. There are no simple and concrete actions to take, and no way to measure its efficacy. So why bother? For one, it keeps his supporters engaged, if only by giving them a place to vent. And more importantly, the act of story-sharing will mean yet more email address accrue to the Obama organization.

So maybe next time, when Obama pushes his next bill, we'll see something more focussed. "Frank, remember when Lucy sent you her story of recession woe? Well, here's a list of ten people to call right now. We need your help nailing Congressman Jones to the wall...."

Recently, the social bookmarking service Ma.gnolia crashed in a big way, losing about half a terabyte of data in the process, including the backup of that data.

Ma.gnolia founder Larry Halff admits that the backup system just wasn't solid enough. Halff has also posted some tools and information on the main Ma.gnolia page that should help users recover some of their data. However, it sounds as though the future of the service may now be in question.

The episode raises some interesting questions. Sebastien Paquet, a professor of computer science at the Universitédu Québec à Montréal, posted nine ways to protect data stored in the cloud, inspired by his own loss of data stored using Ma.gnolia. He and others have taken the opportunity to reexamine their trust in Web 2.0 services.

I say that the problem goes much further. For example, how safe is the data behind something like Wikipedia? Ed Chi, a senior research scientist at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), and his colleagues have been studying Wikipedia since about 2006 (see my article on their tool, WikiDashboard). In the course of their work, they struggled to get access to live data from Wikipedia that could make their tool more up to date and useful.

Chi told me, "What was difficult about doing this is that the Wikipedia Foundation has a lot of work done by volunteers, and getting access to the live data required application to a special research server, which is only occasionally administered on a volunteer basis. It's amazing that it works at all, as the server really doesn't get much attention and needed maintenance. It is such a valuable resource, so it really should get more attention and caring and feeding."

Chi also suggested that Wikipedia's data is not getting backed up as often as it should be. Losing data from Ma.gnolia is a personal loss for many, but Wikipedia is one of the great achievements of the digital age, and losing even a day's worth of edits would be significant. We can't afford to lose sight of the basic upkeep that will allow us to hold on to what we create.

Losing a large volume of socially created data would be a cultural loss. Wikipedia, Flickr, Twitter, WordPress, etc. store troves of data that will be valuable to future generations. I hope the data is being treated accordingly.

President-elect Barack Obama made savvy use of the Internet during his election campaign, and to guide his transition into power. It's only fitting, then, that there should be so many ways to follow his inauguration online if you can't make it to DC for the big day.

The New York Times will stream inauguration footage live on its home page, and the technology company Harris has promised to stream 3-D virtual views and live video of the inaugural parade route. The video site Hulu has collected lots more Obama-related material, including sketches from Saturday Night Live and, for some historical perspective, a collection of previous inaugural speeches.

For an international perspective, LiveStation will host footage from news organizations from around the world, including Al Jazeera English and the BBC (it works best if you download the LiveStation peer-to-peer application). New TeeVee has compiled a more comprehensive list of news organizations and websites that will have inaugural footage online.

CNN Live and Facebook are joining forces to make watching the inauguration online a social event with an app that lets you share and discuss the event live with friends.

There is, of course, also a Facebook group dedicated to the day, and there are plenty of options for following the happenings on Twitter. Just follow the Presidential Inaugural Committee, the U.S. Government, the District of Columbia, and a variety of inauguration-related channels, including Inauguration DC. And for general buzz about the day, simply search for "inauguration." Images of the buildup to the inauguration ceremony can already be found on the Presidential Inaugural Committee's dedicated Flickr page.

Meanwhile, interactive graphics created by the New York Times show the route that the Inauguration Parade will take and a look back at the language used in every presidential inaugural address since 1789. USA Today offers more interactive content, including video reports and contributions from citizen journalists.

To receive text messages and e-mail updates about DC events, sign up at the Presidential Inaugural Committee's website. Though mainly intended for those attending the inauguration in person, the site promises to send updates about neighborhood parties and events as well.

This post at Read/Write Web is an excellent guide to celebrating Inauguration Day digitally and includes even more useful links.