Social Media, The Path to An Inauguration for the People

Mr. John Steele Gordon, author of an Opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal’s January 20, 2009 edition titled “An Inauguration for the People” eloquently describes the building excitement to the eventual inauguration of our new President,  Barack Obama.

He scribes…”So the inauguration of Mr. Obama is being seen, rightly, as a moment in American history, when the idea that “Anyone can grow up to be president” is becoming more true than it had been previously. American democracy is being significantly deepened and widened by his accession to the presidency.”

I experienced that first-hand and I was not even at our nation’s capitol.

I was sitting at my Mac desktop witnessing the CNN.com live stream which was accompanied by the Facebook.com status update box. Plus there were Twitter conversation streams. (TIP : To follow other Inauguration conversation streams, type #inaug, inauguration, and of course Obama into Twitter’s search engine, i.e http://search.twitter.com.

The people voices were being amplified, and in many cases heard via responders’ comments.

Mr. Gordon’s piece cited the equivalent reaction to the people’s participation by citing the colorful if not rambunctious behavior surrounding Andrew Jackson’s inauguration in 1829. He writes “The ordinary people of he country were right to cheer Jackson’s accession to the presidency.”

Social media has brought politics and its’ processes closer to the public with its powerful and far-reaching tools. Mr Gordon concludes “Whether Barack Obama will have as profound at impact on the country as Andrew Jackson only time will tell. But it is, perhaps, unlikely.  Jackson’s America was still only half formed and for more politically malleable.”

Time will tell how social media’s impact will pervade.  I am betting it will be more utilized and useful. Charlene Li’s , Altimeter Group, presentation titled  “The Future of Social Networks:Where We Are Today” shares her thoughts courtesy of Mashable.com’s blog.

What do you think?

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