THE brains behind Mr Barack Obama's Internet campaign have revealed that they had just one smartphone among them the day their unlikely high-tech revolution began.

In the first public discussion since the election, new-media director Joe Rospars, online director Scott Goodstein and blogging supremo Sam Graham- Felsen referred to a 'tidal wave' of online-voter activism.

After the 2004 campaign of presidential hopeful Howard Dean pioneered the online political revolution, voters in this election were ready to experiment. Internet technology was rapidly developing, and with emerging tools such as networking site Twitter, Mr Obama's long-shot bid for the presidency got underway.

"We were a very small organisation. There was just three of us," said Mr Rospars, at the Alliance of Youth Movements conference in New York. Mr Goodstein said:

"Sam was the only one on the campaign who had an iPhone. I used to tease him."

From that humble start, the three whizzes went on to mastermind a campaign that put the first truly Internet-friendly president in the Oval Office. They did this by embracing the gamut of new-media tools, from YouTube to e-mail lists, from blogs to Facebook, and by putting an Obama platform on iPhones so that users could recruit contacts for the cause.

The result, said Mr Micah Sifry, co-founder of politics blog TechPresident, was a 'mass participation revolution' that is set to continue after Mr Obama is inaugurated next month.

The country was already ripe for putting politics online when Mr Obama launched his fight for the Democratic nomination, then took on Republican John McCain.

Ninety per cent of people younger than 29 use the Internet, and one in three Americans have posted a comment or
rating, Mr Sifry said.

The Obama team brilliantly exploited that culture, amassing 13 million e-mail addresses, 3.95 million individual donors and 3.2 million friends on the Obama Facebook page.

Backers were encouraged to post photos, videos and opinions on mybarackobama.com

High-tech innovations also allowed Mr Obama's web warriors to set new standards for the old political art of tailoring messages and responding to attacks.

Mr Obama has made clear he wants to continue his e-connection to the people as president, using YouTube to broadcast addresses, allowing debate on his transition site change.org, and maintaining a steady flow of mass e-mails to supporters.

Mr Goodstein said that new media in politics is here to stay "The cat's out of the bag," he said.