Meet the OPOs

But the Internet touches not just fundraising but also all other facets of the campaigns, including communications and field organizing, and the buzzword that OPOs throw around is "integration" -- how well the online department is integrated with the rest of the campaign and its staff.

Everyone agrees that more integration is needed. Not everyone agrees on what it means.

At Romney's camp in Boston, integration means that there is no online department and that Smith and Finn work for other campaign departments. For example, Smith, director of online communications, reports to Matt Rhoades, the communications director.

At Clinton headquarters in Arlington, integration means that Daou, who leads the Internet department's staff of 10, is considered a senior staffer but answers to the communications director. Daou reports to Howard Wolfson, who reports to Patti Solis Doyle, Clinton's campaign manager.

At Obama's headquarters in Chicago, integration means that Rospars, the new-media director, reports to Plouffe, the campaign manager, and Rospars's staff of 11 sits together, next to the research and communications departments.

And at the Edwards camp in Chapel Hill, Gross answers to David Bonior, the campaign manager.

"Maybe full integration means that this is the last cycle where candidates need an 'online team' and 'online strategists,' " Gross said. "Maybe by the time we get to 2012, the next election cycle, there would be no difference between a candidate's campaign strategy and online strategy."

Gross is working with his onetime boss, Trippi, who joined the Edwards team two weeks ago after talking to both Obama and Clinton. Trippi is a senior adviser to the campaign, helping with its overall media strategy.

"If you think about it, the Dean campaign was really in the stone age three, four years ago," Trippi said. "We didn't even have YouTube then."

His goal now, Trippi said, is to take advantage of voter-generated content. This week Edwards released his first television ad, which coincided with President Bush's veto of the Iraq funding bill. And the 30-second spot, which runs in the D.C. media market, has a major online component -- voters can send their own message to Bush by adding videos to the spot and posting them on Edwards's official site and on YouTube.

"It's not just TV, it's not just the Web," said Trippi. "It's what I call integrated media."