Ever since 1960, when he handed out brochures for John F. Kennedy at the age of nine, Phil Noble has been on the front lines of political campaigning. Now, according to Noble and as evidenced by the groundbreaking campaign "Obama for America," that front line is located squarely online. The founder of PoliticsOnline, a website that tracks how the web is used in politics and the civic sector around the world, Noble is not only an expert on politics, the Internet, and campaigning, but he also speaks frankly and with great humor about how Barack Obama and his ascendancy to the top of the Democratic Party has changed the face of America's electoral future, and how the lessons of his campaign can change the way marketers think about reaching audiences.

A Career in Campaigns. Since his days doing his part for the Kennedy campaign in 1960, Noble has been continuously involved in politics and civic affairs in the US and in 30 countries around the world. As president of the South Carolina New Democrats, he was an early advisor to the Obama campaign and served on the campaign's steering committee for South Carolina. He is recognized globally as one of the leading experts on uses of the Internet in the civic sector--in politics, media, government and public affairs. In 1996, Noble founded PoliticsOnline, the premier international company providing news, tools, and strategies for the civic sector globally. Their company's products and services have been used by over 900 clients in over 50 countries and is responsible for major innovations in the field. He wrote the first-ever Guide to the Internet and Politics and numerous articles on the Internet, media, communications and politics for U.S. and international publications.

New Media, New Ideas, New Connections. In 1979, he founded Phil Noble and Associates, a political and public affairs consulting firm, which has been involved in more than 350 corporate public affairs projects and political campaigns in 40 states and 35 countries, including 25 campaigns to elect the president or prime minister in countries of North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. The firm's innovative strategies have been widely praised and were featured in a page one profile of Noble in the Wall Street Journal. The firm has developed major new media, technology, and e-democracy projects for such clients as the European Union and European Parliament, United Nations/Papandreou Foundation, Metropolis/World Bank, The BBC, AOL Time Warner, Reuters, Bertelsmann Foundation, Amnesty International, and various governments, political parties, and organizations.

Noble is a frequent speaker and lecturer for university, corporate, and public policy seminars and courses in the U.S. and internationally. For seven years he taught a summer course on Campaigns, Democracies, and the Internet at the University of Amsterdam. In Feb. 2001, he was a resident fellow of the Institute of Politics of the John F. Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University.