[Politics]

Franklin Roosevelt was famous for reassuring nervous Americans during the Great Depression by chatting with them on the radio. In today's version of the Depression, US President Barack Obama basically does the same thing with the Internet – by holding an online town hall meeting yesterday, where he answered the most popular questions that visitors to the whitehouse.gov website asked.

Obama is credited for using the Internet in ingenious ways during his presidential campaign, resulting in a landslide victory. But it left people wondering whether or not he was going to continue using the Internet during his administration, despite his promises to do so. With his first town hall meeting, he's pretty much shown America and the world just how transparent he'd like his administration to be.

The town hall meeting took questions from over 90,000 Americans, who all-in-all submitted more than a hundred thousand questions about the economy. Now Obama wasn't the first President who encouraged the public to submit questions over the Internet, but what was special about the online town hall meeting was that the people who asked questions could also interact with each other and vote on the questions they'd like their young President to answer. More than 3.6 million votes were recorded.

Obama answered the seven most popular questions in real-time, at the White House's East Wing, with about 100 people in attendance. Most of the questions reflected Americans who were financially troubled, losing their homes and jobs and struggling to make ends meet. The most well-received question was a video from three bubbly college girls who asked what Obama planned to do to make college more affordable. Obama answered that a national program was going to be rolled out in a matter of weeks.

Surprisingly, one of the most-asked (and most-talked about) questions was brought up during the online meeting – Is it time to legalize marijuana? Grinning, Obama replied in the negative, wondering aloud what the question said about the online community.

Overall, I thought the online town hall meeting wasn't the best public appearance by Obama yet, since none of his answers had a “Whoa, cool” factor to them – unlike his answer to a CNN reporter the other day.

CNN Reporter: “Why did you wait two days to bring the AIG bonus issue to the public – If your administration had known about it earlier, shouldn't you have done something right away?”

Obama: “I took two days because I like to know what I'm talking about.”

I think Obama's doing a pretty good job so far, and I can't wait to see which issues the next online town hall meeting will tackle.

Barack Obama's win in last year's US Presidential election was one of 2008's most memorable moments, and all of a sudden no one doubted in the young African-American's popularity and the role that media had in his rise to power. Well, his historic inauguration is only a day away, and if you're looking for a spot to watch history unfold, it'll be hard to miss... although I don't think there's been a time in my life when I wanted to be in Washington DC more than now.

Washington DC is going to throw a US$160-million inaugural party for Barack Obama tomorrow, dwarfing the US$42-million party that George W. Bush enjoyed four years ago and the US$29.6-million one for Bill Clinton's second term. Called for as they may be, the lavish celebrations to be had have drawn its fair share of criticism from Republicans and naysayers.

Obama undoubtedly faces a tough, tough task once the parties are over – he'll face an economy in crisis, an environment in peril, the Middle East in chaos, and international ties at the brink of collapse. Most of the criticism directed at the overgenerous celebrations ask whether now is really the time to party, but they at the same time sound like knee-jerk sour-graping.

If you ask me, though, Obama's inauguration should be worth at least four times the one Bush enjoyed. In addition to celebrating his rise to power, it's also celebrating the exit of Bush and his failed policies. That by itself is worth drinking myself to sleep.

Besides, judging from history, the inaugural party can set the tone for the rest of the presidency. And if Obama's going to clean up the mess left behind by Bush, he's going to need all the help he can get.


Tech companies and TV networks are teaming up to bring Obama's inaugural party to as many people as possible. All of the major networks in the US will be covering the swearing in and the subsequent parties, and telecasts of the ceremonies can be viewed on their websites, as well. If you're going to be in transit or otherwise out of the house by 11:30 a.m EST (that's 11:30 p.m. Hong Kong time), you can still watch history unfold on your laptop or mobile device – all you need is a connection to the Internet. You can count on me to be home at that time though, since it'll be hard to enjoy a beer otherwise.


Apparently, it's not just tech/media gurus like Chris Gomez who approves of the lavish celebrations. Musicians such as Beyonce, Bono, and Bruce Springsteen are going to be around for the parties. Other big names include John Legend, Josh Groban, Sheryl Crow, Stevie Wonder, and well-known Obama supporter will.i.am.


No matter what the naysayers say, January 20, 2009 is going to be a day to remember for the entire world – and I'm going to be there to enjoy every single minute.

It seems that the Republicans have learned their lesson. Michigan Republican Chairman Saul Anuzis recently announced his intent to lead the Republican Party in a very unlikely place: the micro-blogging social network, Twitter.

He's not the only Republican jumping onto the social media bandwagon these days – other GOP candidates are also launching profiles on Facebook, MySpace, and other social media platforms in preparation for the 2010 midterm elections. John McCain may not like the idea, but his colleagues doing the right thing – unless the Republican Party learns to embrace technology and incorporate it into the party agenda, it's bound to face another landslide defeat against those geeky Democrats.

Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong recently issued a series of open letters to Barack Obama, asking the President-elect to step up the fight against cancer as he had promised during his campaign. Now it's Microsoft founder Bill Gates who's expressing his ideas to next US President, particularly on a broad stimulus package and foreign aid. It would seem that Obama has a whole lot to live up to beginning January 20, 2009.

Everybody's heard of the prank call that a South Florida radio station made to Alaska Governor and former US Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin, and Barack Obama made sure afterwards that he wouldn't fall victim to the same prank. Apparently, he had other ideas – to make the prank calls himself.

Indian-American Sonal Shah was recently appointed by Barack Obama to his transition team. She is one of the tech executives that Obama chose to help him make as smooth a transition to power as possible. Sonal Shah, 40, is an eminent economist who currently serves as the head of Google's philantrophic arm, and she has held many prominent positions in both private and public organizations in the past. While her appointment has been praised as a wise move on Obama's part, it has received its share of criticism as well.

Yesterday I wrote about Barack Obama being the “social media” president, referring to the way social media and the Internet in no small way helped him win the US presidential election by a landslide. In the same article I mentioned that it would be interesting to see how Obama will use the Internet to help bring change to the US and the rest of the world when he takes office in a little over two months' time. Well, apparently my question has been answered.

Almost everybody in the world disliked (hated?) the George W. Bush administration, but this wasn't the case for TV satirists like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. In fact, they and other TV satirists had the time of their lives over the past five or six years, particularly when things started turning sour in the Iraq War and the US economy. Having a gaffe-prone President gave them a lot of things to talk about, which means they may be in for a tough time when the next President steps into the White House.

US President-Elect Barack Obama is often referred to as the “Social Media” President, owing to how social media and the Internet helped create the amazingly successful campaign that got him the election two days ago. Once we take a look at just how far-reaching his social media-based campaign was, it soon becomes clear how Sen. John McCain, who admitted he never had the need for e-mail (though some respected sources have shared information about his involvement in the creation of the Blackberry), missed the election by a landslide.

Ever heard of Perceptive Pixel?

This unassuming company operating on the 16th floor of a building somewhere in downtown Manhattan is actually the creator of one of the coolest tech devices today – the “Multi-Touch Collaboration Wall.” It's more popularly known as CNN's “Magic Wall,” which John King used to give viewers a better idea of what was going on during the election primaries earlier this year (Fig. 01). With a few pokes, strokes, and waves of his hands, John could zoom into any U.S. State and show exactly why John Edwards was about to come in third.

Fig. 01