The Inauguration in Real Time

by J. Butler, Applecore Content Development Specialist

The whole world—or at least, Western  media—is abuzz covering the first 100 days of Obama’s Presidency. But what was really neat was the seamless integration of the same kinds of technology that helped put him in the White House into the coverage of his first day on the job.  

CNN.com and Facebook teamed up to bring a live feed of the inauguration coverage into the homes of people around the world. The real hook, though, came in the presentation: while watching the proceedings of the inauguration, the video was spliced with a Facebook feed of status updates from users logged in around the world, updated in real time.

The linking of the two worked so well, providing a real-time reaction to what was going on and most importantly, capturing the zeitgeist of the day. Reading the joyful, almost giddy reaction of people who have never met but share a fantastic, powerful bond showcases the awesome heights that social media can reach---when done correctly. 

Who knows in what kind of direction this rapid-fire interactivity could take in the future? And what a perfect way to punctuate the first truly interactive election. 

*UPDATE!* Stats from psfk (emphasis mine): 

The inauguration prompted more than one million status updates during the event, averaging over 4,000 status updates per hour Tuesday morning and peaking at 8,500 updates every minute while President Obama was giving his speech. As of 11:45 a.m. Eastern time, CNN had served 13.9 million live video streams globally since 6 a.m., according to Mashable.