Aileen Jeffries

Most of the time when I tell people what I do for a living, their eyes sort of glaze over and I find myself trailing off and finishing with something vague. “Um, the Internet.” Then I talk about how I co-founded my own company, which is a far more relatable accomplishment. The icing on the cake is our actual, brick-and-mortar office which seems legitimize the whole sketchy affair in the minds of my acquaintances.

So it great when I can point to something tangible – this time literally, it can be held in my hand!  Along with a very talented team of developers, designers and strategists, I have been developing an application for the iPhone, which launched this morning. The name of this application? Obama ‘08. That’s right, I managed to combine two of my greatest interests, seeing Barack Obama get elected President this November and nourishing my inner nerd. The application is available for free on iTunes and is designed to allow supporters of the Obama campaign to look up local events, find a local HQ and read Obama’s stance on the issues. Most importantly, it organizes your contacts, prioritizing those who live in key battleground states. This feature makes me realize that I don’t really know too many people who live in battleground states – either it’s Oregon (California’s Canada!) or red states like South Carolina or Tennessee. I’m also not good at calling people up and telling them how to vote, probably a result of emotional trauma incurred during my teen-aged years spent volunteering for various First District Democratic congresspeople.

I’m very happy to have made a small contribution to something I feel very strongly about. More information about this application can be found on barackobama.com/iphone and on various blogs:

• Jason Grigsby’s User First Web
• Lyza Danger Gardner
• Raven Zachary
• Jonathan Wight’s ToxicSoftware

Back in the office! I’m happy to be back amongst my fellow cloudies. The mysterious pile of tiny dead flies on my desk has thrived in my absence. Jason accused me of being a little piggy but I blame the HVAC system directly overhead. It is ineffectual and conversation-haltingly loud so being the source of a tiny dead fly scourge seems well within character.