Politics 2.0

You can't move right now without seeing something about the Inauguration. It is truly riveting. I'm bummed that I'll be on an airplane tomorrow and won't get to watch everything live, but I am sure that when I get to my hotel room in New Jersey I'll be able to watch the highlights on any number of television stations. Meanwhile I'm "Tivo'ing" about 8 hours of coverage plus lots of other shows hovering around the Balls and other events. I've literally been dumping stuff off my Tivo to make room for this. (Side note: I don't own a Tivo any more, it is a DirecTV DVR, but it sounds much better when I say "Tivo.")

The question is, what happens on Wednesday? Ok, on Wednesday we'll all still be recovering from the celebration from the day before. So let's fast forward a week, what happens then? Do we all suddenly remember how lousy the economy is and that our friends and family members are losing their jobs at an alarming rate? My guess is, yes. The LA Times today reported that "Unemployment could be worse than now by the time President-elect Barack Obama's first term ends."

I'm afraid that the outlook is extremely bleak.

One of the few silver linings is the fact that I believe we'll actually have some clue as to what our government is doing. Thanks to technology and specifically the explosion of Social Media, there are a number of ways to keep abreast of what our new President and his administration will be doing. It started with the election and it will continue. A guest post today on Mashable from Shaun Dakin who created the National Political Do Not Contact Registry (a personal favorite of mine as you may be aware), listed the Top 10 Online Tools to Connect With the Obama Administration. Read the post here and the shortcut to his top 10 is here:

1. Whitehouse.gov
2. Change.gov
3. MyBarackObama.com
4. USA Service
5. Presidential Inauguration Committee
6. USA.gov
7. Change.org - Ideas for Change in America
8. ObamaCTO
9. The Sunlight Foundation
10. The New York Times Congress API