Who Needs Presidential Libraries When You've Got the Web?

The Kennedy family, you might have heard, quickly erected a Twitter account (at @kennedynews) to push out information on and observations from Senator Ted Kennedy's "memorial and funeral activities," said the feed. But that's the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the digital memorialization of the senator's life that has begun to take place. And consider this. Ted Kennedy is today lying in repose in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. That Boston edifice, dedicated to his brother's life and career, cost of more than $20 million and took more than 15 years to build after JFK's sudden death in 1963. For heck's sake, President Jimmy Carter did the dedication.

But for a fraction of the cost and a sliver of the time, Ted Kennedy's family has already begun to smartly use technology to craft for their beloved father, uncle, grandfather, cousin, and friend a durable version of his life history that will shape how Edward M. Kennedy is remembered tomorrow and countless tomorrows from now. That's a new and powerful opportunity. And it's an opportunity that Kennedy's allies -- including Blue State Digital, the digital firm behind Barack Obama's presidential campaign and Senator Kennedy's longtime web team -- seem to strongly grasp.