From Howard Dean to Barack Obama, we’ve seen how the Internet is changing how politicians run campaigns. Now new data from The Pew Internet and American Life Project only confirms the trend – the majority of Americans are now using the Internet to become involved in campaigns.

According to the research done by Pew, 73% of adult Internet users turned to the Internet to get information about candidates or join campaigns during the 2010 election.

We’re squarely in the era of Campaign 2.0 as politicians follow their audiences onto the Internet. But the key question for most of us here at Reset San Francisco is not how politicians use the Internet to get votes, but how elected officials and the governments they lead can use new technology tools to make our lives better by adopting Gov2.0.

HuffingtonPost-Pew-Internet

Campaign 2.0 is a first step – and the Pew study is certainly worth a read. But let’s acknowledge it is just a step. The real leap will come when candidates spend as much time using technology to make government better as they spend using technology to win our votes.