President Obama’s weekly address

President-elect Obama has just announced that the weekly address will no longer be shown on television. Instead, the address will air on the radio and be posted immediately on YouTube.

These talks originated with FDR and were called “fireside chats”, and every president since then has done them, either on the radio or on television. Posting them immediately on YouTube will allow a greater audience to hear the remarks, and to respond, as long as they keep the comments turned on. It will also allow for others to reference the speeches easily, in order to spread the message or address a…

Google adds video chat

Today, Google also announced that video is an option for chatting. It works with the regular chat services and has many options, such as popping out the video window so you can continue working while chatting.

Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

• Download the Gmail voice and video chat plug-in, quit all open browser windows, and install the plug-in.
• Sign in to Gmail.
• In the Chat section of your Gmail, select the contact you want to call. If they have a camera icon next to their name, you can make a voice or video call to them; just click Video & more.

If your friend…

Extensive Twitter Overview

For those of you who are curious about Twitter but have not yet dipped your toe in the water, here’s an extensive video piece by EpicFu compliments of chris brogan. The video doesn’t just focus on twitter, it highlights the many tools and functions around the platform including search, content tracking and the like. The video is ten minutes long, the first half is on twitter.

By the way…digital pivot is now on twitter. Follow us.

Olympic Media Convergence: Closing Thoughts

Okay, I admit, I’m a hopeless junkie for the athletic excellence of the Olympic games – summer and winter. But Beijing 2008 should have excited even those media and new media junkies the least interested in athletics. NBC’s standard setting closing credits video montage alone was a must see for any video editor. But most significant was how NBC’s multi-platform presentation combined broadcast, cable, Internet, video-on-demand, and pay-per-view while also delivering video as it was captured in Beijing to three screens: TV, PC, and smartphone.

The many promises of digital new media are incalculable. But its gold medal event can’t happen without more advanced technologies. So…

You Suck at Photoshop: What we can REALLY learn from it

It’s possible to learn some handy graphic design tips from the Webby Award winning online video series You Suck at Photoshop. But You Suck, from creators Matt Bledsoe and Troy Hitch, teaches entertainment and advertising creatives a lot more about how to tell a story in the online medium.

As story, Donnie Hoyle’s tortured tutorials involving the use of the cloning tool and the horrible breakdown of his marriage is brilliant.

That’s because it shows us what elements are most important for telling a good story on the web:

• First-Person Point-of-View: Donnie talks right at us. This is completely one man’s life. Narrow focus.
• Specific World: You…