US President releases first weekly youtube address

One of the promises Barack Obama made in the US was to release his weekly address to the nation via Youtube.

This signaled how serious he was about transparent and open government, and flagged the incoming US government recognition of the power of Youtube's large and growing audience - which publishes almost 10,000 hours of content per day (per Michael Welsch's Anthropological Introduction to Youtube).

Obama's first weekly address is now available online and demonstrates how polished his staff have become in the use of Youtube.

I hope we'll see a similar use in Australia of the KevinPM website, even going further to have the Prime Minister respond in a public questiontime to video questions posed by citizens - just as John Howard used his weekly radio talkback - but accessible to a broader audience.