Comments on: Watch Out Avril, Here Comes Obama

By: anonymous

anonymous — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:07:31 +0000

Correct me if i’m wrong, but I think it mentions avril because it’s the most viewed youtube video in all times

By: antiquerze

antiquerze — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:53:53 +0000

This concept reminds me of “useless” :-) Sorry folks I just don’t see why is this so important..!? It won’t change anything, will it? Just lead the country well and I’m fine.

By: israelisassi

israelisassi — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:30:29 +0000

This concept reminds me of the phrase “throw the dog a bone”.

By: Black Max

Black Max — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:46:36 +0000

>>Isn’t this similar to what Ross Perot wanted to do?

Yes, but Perot had an idea to bring what we would now call “social community” to government, with citizens voting directly, town-hall style, on various issues.

>>Sorry did I mis-read the article? Didn’t it say that Bush ALREADY does this? So, Obama will not be ‘making history’ in this respect…

His White House did some–not all–of the things the Obama administration will do, but did not make a big deal out of it. Most people didn’t know they could subscribe to a White House RSS feed, for example.

I think it’s potentially a great thing, if the White House staff actually pays attention to the commentary and so forth. Whether all the YouTubing and interactivity actually gets anyone’s attention in the corridors of power remains to be seen. I do know that Obama’s campaign staff paid close attention to the discussions on the Daily Kos (Obama himself posted there once, in 2005), and sometimes contributed their own comments and posts. So the propensity for keeping an ear tuned to the Web community is already there.

By: Klas

Klas — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 04:43:05 +0000

I don’t understand why Avril is mentioned in the title of this article, but nowhere in the body? Is there a popular reference I am missing?

By: pje

pje — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:48:56 +0000

I totally agree.

By: Josh Catone

Josh Catone — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 23:11:03 +0000

@Anonymous: No, Bush doesn’t already do this. I was just giving credit where it is due. Bush (or his staff, at least) has brought the White House web site at least part way into the Web 2.0 era with things like RSS feeds and posted videos of press briefings. Obama is continuing that trend by taking further and using a user generated content/social media site like YouTube.

US presidents have been doing a weekly radio address for many years. But none have taped it for YouTube. Obama won’t really be doing anything new with the actual address (at least, nothing has been announced), but he is doing something new in how it is distributed by using an on-demand, two-way medium such as video sharing.

By: roosevelt

roosevelt — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:58:32 +0000

how many of us know bush does something like that? I certainly didn’t!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:30:22 +0000

Sorry did I mis-read the article? Didn’t it say that Bush ALREADY does this? So, Obama will not be ‘making history’ in this respect…

By: tnrstudios

tnrstudios — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:04:35 +0000

Glad to see it happening– this could be a real tool to streamline information dissemination rather than allowing major media outlets to disseminate white house news …