To Reach the Masses

Just because the election’s over doesn’t mean politics is through utilizing the internet until four years from now.  Youtube is once again going to play host to political innovation.

The fire side chat (a short presidential radio speech in place since FDR’s presidency) will begin broadcasting on Youtube when Obama takes office.

I’ve honestly never listened to one of these fire side chats, but I’m much more likely to look into it if it’s on Youtube.  On my own time, through my own procrastination listening to a few minutes of the President seems like a much more likely practice online.  We’ve got a little time to go, but we’ll see what kind of view count Obama gets once his chats are posted.

Election Perfection

It’s election day and that means it is not a stellar day for technology.  As was apparent in 2000 and will be apparent again today no vote is as safe as we’d hope.  From the recount and hanging chads to the ever present hacking possibility for electronic booths the result of the election isn’t as nerve racking as the possibility of the wrong result.

New York remains one of the safer states with its lever voting machines, but the lever booth is far from the most popular across the country today.  From paper to computers there’s quite a spread across the country today just the same as political opinions.  It’s important to vote today, whether it’s your first time or the one hundredth time, but it’s important to understand things don’t end today.  As active as the country has been in the past year, the attention that has been paid to issues, that fire should continue.  Maybe we should start with the voting process itself.  Maybe next time we won’t have to be afraid of the integrity and safety of our very ballots.