The United Sates of America and Australia have been friends and allies for many years, and the ties born of shared hardships in war and shared cultural history are strong indeed.

An interesting but perhaps not well known fact is that are some features of the two systems of government which are surprisingly similar. I am not referring to the democratic nature of our two systems, which is none-the-less true and something in which we both peoples can take pride.

Barack Obama's decision to refuse public financing for his presidential campaign has been seen as a sign of shrewd political pragmatism and also as an act of utter hypocrisy. But everyone seems to agree on his reasoning: The Internet made him do it. Taking public financing would limit Obama's ability to use the Internet for fund-raising, which he is very, very good at.

Before he was even nominated, Obama's close-to-$300 million war chest was hefty enough to make even the richest of red-state Republicans green with envy. To be an effective president, however, Obama will have to do more with the Internet than just use it to raise money. He'll need to govern with it.

This was one of the major themes of Personal Democracy Forum 2008, a conference held a few months back in New York City. The speakers included all sorts of Web luminaries, such as Google's Vint Cerf, Fast Company's Robert Scoble, Mahalo founder Jason Calacanis, and craigslist founder Craig Newmark. They all agreed that for the Obama administration to be truly transformative, it would have to transition from campaign mode—raising money and getting out the vote—into governing mode—getting things done for the American people.