President’s weekly “radio” address on YouTube

Posted on November 14, 2008 by Steve Mays

US president-elect Barack Obama is to make the first YouTube address to the nation on Saturday, recording a talk not just on radio but also on video. The weekly radio address will be posted to Change.gov. First time a president/president-elect goes multi-media (or knows what that is?). AP

Not likely, but wouldn’t it be great if O just recorded the video on his MacBook Pro and uploaded himself? Sure, not a good use of his time but talk about going directly to the people.

UPDATE: It’s now Saturday morning, the video is up, and I’ve been thinking some more about this…

I don’t recall which president started the weekly radio address (or when), but I’m pretty sure we aired it occasionally on KBOA back in the 70’s. Strictly filler for a slow Saturday morning.

I always assumed this was a radio address because none of the TV networks were going to air a 15 or 20 minute speech by the president, and radio stations might. Ironically, I don’t ever recall hearing it on the radio (except at KBOA). And the network newscasts frequently feature a few seconds of the audio, usually with a graphic of an ancient microphone or VU meter.

This week’s Democratic response to President Bush’s weekly radio message will –as noted above– be YouTube’d. I have to wonder for how much longer this will be described as the president’s weekly "radio" address.

One final footnote… Back in August of 2005, the White House began podcasting the president’s weekly radio address. YouTube was created in February of that year but was still too new for anyone to think about using for the weekly address.

Video chatting from Gmail

Posted on November 12, 2008 by Steve Mays

I love Gmail (Google’s free mail service). I use lots of Google tools: Calendar, Google (RSS) Reader; and Google Chat, to which they’ve recently added video. Just tried it out with David and it works great.

While waiting for David to install the little app, Scott pinged me from his hotel room in Cancun. He was doing the same thing, looking for someone online with the new app installed. A little latency on his video, probably due to hotel wifi.

But this is a nice addition to Google chat. If you don’t have a webcam on/with your computer, get one. And the next time you buy a computer, please consider a Mac.

Post number 4,000

Posted on November 12, 2008 by Steve Mays

In February smays.com will be seven years old. I have not posted every day since that first one in 2002, but I’ve been reasonably consistent. This is post number 4,000. A nice, round number of absolutely zero significance. But we bloggers must make note of such things.

If I had to guess, I’d say fewer than 10 percent of those 4,000 posts were in any way original. The rest were comments on, and links to, other posts, stories and articles.

The tools have gotten better since I began. There was no YouTube or flickr when I started. Social networking was still more of a concept than a web reality. And you pretty much had to be in front of a computer since phones weren’t smart enough or fast enough for surfing and blogging.

Can’t wait to see where we are at post number 5,000… or 10,000.

The first Web President

Posted on November 12, 2008 by Steve Mays

I’m working my way through a stack stories and columns examining how the Obama campaign used the web, social networks, email and other online tools. They went so far beyond just “click here to send us some money.” Somebody on the team (some bodies) really understands this space where so many of us choose to live and work.

Here’s a couple of snippets to get started and I’ll update as we go under the category: Obama Online

Washington Post: “The nucleus of that (campaign) effort is an e-mail database of more than 10 million supporters. The list is considered so valuable that the Obama camp briefly offered it as collateral during a cash-flow crunch late in the campaign, though it wound up never needing the loan, senior aides said. At least 3.1 million people on the list donated money to Obama.”

New York Times: “The juxtaposition of a networked, open-source campaign and a historically imperial office will have profound implications and raise significant questions. Special-interest groups and lobbyists will now contend with an environment of transparency and a president who owes them nothing. The news media will now contend with an administration that can take its case directly to its base without even booking time on the networks.

More profoundly, while many people think that President-elect Obama is a gift to the Democratic Party, he could actually hasten its demise. Political parties supply brand, ground troops, money and relationships, all things that Mr. Obama already owns.”

I’ve felt since I first got hooked on Obama’s campaign that my affinity is to this particular man (and his ideas), not the Democratic Party.

An excellent source for this kind of info is techPresident.

NYT/Bits: “Mr. Obama’s campaign took advantage of YouTube for free advertising. (Joe) Trippi argued that those videos were more effective than television ads because viewers chose to watch them or received them from a friend instead of having their television shows interrupted.

“The campaign’s official stuff they created for YouTube was watched for 14.5 million hours,” Mr. Trippi said. “To buy 14.5 million hours on broadcast TV is $47 million.”

There has also been a sea change in fact-checking, with citizens using the Internet to find past speeches that prove a politician wrong and then using the Web to alert their fellow citizens.”

Google searches to track spread of flu.

Posted on November 11, 2008 by Steve Mays

“Google Flu Trends is based on the simple idea that people who are feeling sick will probably turn to the Web for information, typing things like “flu symptoms” or “muscle aches” into Google. The service tracks such queries and charts their ebb and flow, broken down by regions and states.

Early tests suggest that the service may be able to detect regional outbreaks of the flu a week to 10 days before they are reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some public health experts say that could help accelerate the response of doctors, hospitals and public health officials to a nasty flu season, reducing the spread of the disease and, potentially, saving lives.”
[New York Times via K]

Recession: Not necessarily a bad thing

Posted on November 11, 2008 by Steve Mays

Michael S. Hyatt has compiled a list of ten benefits of the current recession:

1. It causes you to get more creative.
2. It forces you to make the tough decisions.
3. It thins out the competition.
4. It makes you realize you can’t take anything for granted.
5. It reminds you that real wealth isn’t about the stuff you own.
6. It fosters out-of-the-box thinking.
7. It makes it easier to abandon business-as-usual.
8. It brings you back to the basics.
9. It accelerates change.
10. It causes you to be less wasteful.

"While you may not be able to control what happens with the economy, you can control your own mental focus. Usually, this determines whether you feel anxiety and fear or peace and hope."

National Socialist Movement (Nazis)

Posted on November 11, 2008 by Steve Mays

3020503672_bf14fdde9f

A rag-tag group calling themselves the National Socialist Movement were in town last weekend. Missourinet reporter Steve Walsh covered the brief march and rally on the steps of the State Capitol. This is my favorite photo from those he snapped.

Are the two young girls at the lectern singing? Perhaps America the Beautiful? Or some German beer hall song? Could they be making a speech? ("What the Neo-Nazi movement means to my junior high class")

How fucked up will the little boy (seated) be as he gets older. Mom thinks she’s doing him a favor, teaching him to hate.

Some are holding their hands over their hearts, others giving the old Heil Hitler stiff arm. But, shit, there was no time to rehearse and it was cold and… fuck it, we’ll just look tough in our SWAT gear.

What’s scarier than $4.00 a gallon?

Posted on November 11, 2008 by Steve Mays

199gallon I really thought we’d never see gasoline under $2.00 a gallon again. And I’m pretty sure it’s not a good sign. It was $2.57 back in September, 2005. Not sure what it was when I grabbed this bit of video in May, 2007.

In some twisted way, I’ll feel reassured when it goes up again.

The Tribal Fez

Posted on November 10, 2008 by Steve Mays

Seth Godin defines a "tribe" as: "a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate."

One my favorite tribes is The Order of the Fez. A short bus full men who like to wear fezzes. We communicate via blog and email. The notion of a "leader" is somewhat antithetical to fezorocity (our defining Force), but since I maintain the blog I perform that role as needed. More of a recording secretary.

This weekend two of our members sent a music video that nicely captures what the OOTF is about.