Joshua Levy at Personal Democracy Forum asks some very reasonable questions about the trajectory of Barack Obama’s Web presence…

In the announcement video, Obama discusses hearing Americans express their frustration with politics as usual: “As I’ve spoken to many of you in my travels across the states these past months, as I’ve read your emails and read your letters, I’ve been struck by how hungry we all are for a different kind of politics.” He puts a particular stress on having had conversations with real Americans and says that running for President isn’t an exercise in vanity but a necessary act on behalf of the country and its citizens. But if we were to judge him solely by his web presence thus far, he wouldn’t seem too eager have an honest conversation with the American people.

But, Levy notes that there are sites out there who are trying to fill the void…

However, there are several unofficial sites that are trying to generate enthusiasm for an Obama run, and to convince the senator himself to jump in the ring. Perhaps the most popular of these is Draft Obama, which has a grassroots feel and, accordingly, features a discussion forum, blogs, and petitions, all developed and contributed by pro-Obama volunteers. Other sites (some with humorously creative takes on his last name), including RunObama.com, Obamarama, Independents for Obama, Students for Barack Obama, Barack Oblagga, and Vermonters for Obama are helping to fill in the gap left by Obama’s official online presence and give him the kind of grassroots credibility he hasn’t cultivated on his own.

He recognizes, though, that perhaps it’s too early to tell where Obama’s netroots strategy will go…

Although it may be too early for Obama to fully embrace the web, he just may be interested in the kind of decentralized power that asks people to organize on their own and rely less on top-down campaign structures. I’ve been told that the Obama campaign hasn’t gotten in the way of Draft Obama at all, suggesting that he may be serious about opening up traditional power structures.

Ultimately we’ll have to wait until Obama officially runs to see how he intends to approach the web. Will he conduct an Edwards-style web campaign and use all of the cool user-participation tools himself, or will he take a cue from decentralized campaign models like Meetup.com and give the power of online campaigning and participation to the people?

Disclosure: I worked briefly with Jim Brayton — now the Webmaster for Barack Obama — during the Dean campaign. As did Zephyr Teachout, who has helped organize Vermonters for Obama. In turn, Zephyr Teachout is a writer on Personal Democracy, where Joshua Levy is Associate Editor. Transparency is all.