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MillimeterThe Distribution Beat
Dec 1, 2008 12:00 PM, Eric Melin
If ever anyone had a doubt that the Internet is absolutely the best place for the unfiltered exchange of ideas, President-elect Barack Obama has put them to rest. For the first time ever, the weekly Democratic address has been released as a web video. Less than two weeks after his historic election, Obama has begun shooting a direct-address video series, and he is posting it on YouTube, AOL, MSN, and Yahoo, among other sites. The first video, titled “Your Weekly Address from the President-elect,” features Obama discussing the current economic crisis. The YouTube version of the video is embedded on www.change.gov, the former candidate's official transition website, which promises that “President-elect Obama plans to publish these weekly updates through the transition and then from the White House.”
While Change.gov and soon www.whitehouse.gov will be the official web headquarters for Obama, his video content will not emanate from a single platform. By using sites such as YouTube to host his content, Obama has enabled anyone who uses the Internet to embed his video wherever they can. His message can then be spread virally by any number of his supporters (or even detractors, if they'd like to put their own contrary editorial spin on a particular video). At press time, Obama's YouTube channel was the number-one most subscribed channel on the site for November.
It seems that Obama is aiming for a presidency with total transparency, because the Change.gov blog goes farther than the weekly address. It also features a videotaped meeting of his Energy and Environment Policy Transition Team and on-camera interviews with team members. A feedback section follows every video, and comments from citizens around the country are collected in the blog. Obama has also posted a video addressed at the world leaders who attended the recent Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles, and another aimed at convincing the European Olympic Committee to choose Chicago as the host city for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
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