Obama shows further mastery of social by tweeting Spotify campaign playlist
Many analysts think President Obama won the 2008 election partly due to his campaign’s ability to use social networks and the web to rally and influence voters. And now with the 2012 election season upon us, Obama is showing he still gets it with the release of a subscribe-able 28-track Spotify playlist.
Obama’s official Twitter account today posted a new Spotify playlist titled “2012 Campaign Playlist” with the message: “A little Wilco, a bit of … Continue Reading
Romney clobbers Gingrich in Florida-based online traffic
Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich may be duking it out tonight in Florida’s high-stakes Republican primary, but when it comes to attracting online traffic from Floridians, Romney is the clear winner, according to Experian Hitwise.
Strong Internet buzz doesn’t translate to a proportionately high number of votes, as demonstrated by Ron Paul in the recent Iowa caucuses. Social media predictors had Ron Paul highly favored to take the Iowa caucus, but he trailed behind Rick … Continue Reading
Obama calls on Congress to pass bill aimed at helping startups
A day after showing his techno savvy with an appearance in a Google+ hangout, President Obama is calling on Congress to pass new legislation that would aid startups, and put them at the center of an agenda, “Startup America,” focused on creating new jobs.
“The president has made small businesses and particularly start-ups a key aspect of his economic growth agenda because he understands how much the newest and fastest-growing small businesses drive job growth … Continue Reading
Reminder: First Google+ Hangout with President Obama is tonight
President Obama will give the Google+ social network a high-profile boost by taking questions on a Hangout video chat starting at 5:30 p.m. Eastern tonight.
The Hangout was announced a week ago, and it will hopefully allow for a more interactive experience than usual for political discourse. The President will be joined by five pre-selected people and answer several questions that were submitted using YouTube.
The President’s hangout will give the fledgling Google+ network more … Continue Reading
State of the Union proves “Spilled Milk” is something to tweet about
When it comes to significant events that are shared across the country (and sometimes the world), Twitter is getting increasingly good at making sense of the real-time data collected from tweets. Take for example last night’s State of the Union address, which racked up 766,681 tweets during the full 95-minute event.
Twitter has previously reported moments of unusually high activity, such as pop singer Beyonce’s pregnancy announcement during MTV Video Music Awards, a tense U.S. … Continue Reading
Obama calls for reforms to support the “next Steve Jobs”
In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Obama recognized startups and entrepreneurs for innovating and creating new jobs, while calling for reforms that would support everyone who “aspires to become the next Steve Jobs.”
The speech focused heavily on leveling the playing field between the U.S. and other countries so that America’s economy could be more competitive, and included key calls to action that would directly affect the startup community. He asked … Continue Reading
Google+ Hangout with Obama planned for Jan. 30
In what might be the biggest promotion yet for the Google+ social network, President Obama will be participating in a Google+ Hangout and answering questions submitted via YouTube on Jan. 30.
While there’s been some controversy over forced registrations for Google’s social network and misleading statistics from Google, there’s no doubt that a chance to “hangout” with the President will get Google+ some more traction and more followers. Google claims Google+ has 90 million registered … Continue Reading
SOPA Opera: Anonymous targets media execs, moguls take aim at Google
The White House shook up the debate over the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) this weekend, publishing a letter that made it clear the executive branch would not back a bill without changes that addressed concerns over online censorship and damage to the very architecture of the internet.
The big news is that Congress has agreed to shelve the vote on SOPA until it can find more common ground. But the battle over how … Continue Reading
Michelle Obama joins Twitter
Michelle Obama has finally joined Twitter, just in time to support her husband’s reelection campaign.
The First Lady’s first tweet (and her Obama Biden 2012-themed avatar) make it clear that the account is a part of the Obama political reelection machine. It reads:
“We’re excited today to launch @michelleobama as a new way for you to connect with First Lady Michelle Obama and the President’s campaign.”
However, the account, which is managed by the campaign … Continue Reading
Today’s other anniversary: The microprocessor turns 40
Today marks the anniversary of the launch of the Xbox and Microsoft’s Halo video game a decade ago, as we’ve chronicled in our coverage. But those launches would never have happened without today’s other anniversary: the 40th anniversary of the launch of the original microprocessor.
Intel introduced the 4004 microprocessor on Nov. 15, 1971, billing it as a computer on a chip. It was a central processing unit (CPU), and its progeny would become the … Continue Reading
Reader poll: Which pundit best summed up the stock market slide?
The pundits were out in force today as they described the big drop in the stock market. Which quote was your favorite?
“Markets will rise and fall, but this is the United States of America,” Barack Obama said. “No matter what some agency may say, we’ve always been and always will be a triple-A country.”
“Any company with an IPO planned for this week will probably pull it,” said Dow Jones Investment Banking deputy managing … Continue Reading
Obama seeks to calm stock market in wake of debt-rating downgrade
U.S. President Barack Obama took to the airwaves today to try to calm a stock market set in turmoil by after market analysis firm Standard & Poor’s downgraded the U.S.’s debt rating to AA+ from AAA.
Obama said that he was aware of the challenges facing the economy and the skepticism in the market about whether the country’s debt problems will be solved.
“We have always been a triple-A country and always will be,” Obama … Continue Reading
Dear Lord. Apple has more money than Uncle Sam
It seems insane, but Apple has more money today than the U.S. government. There’s even crazy talk about how Steve Jobs might have to bail out Uncle Sam, the way that J.P. Morgan did in the mid-1890s.
Even as the Republicans and Democrats try a last-ditch effort to agree to raise the debt ceiling, the U.S. Treasury’s cash balance fell to $74 billion this week, less than the $76 billion that Apple has on its … Continue Reading
Twitter vs. White House Journalists: Who asked the most questions about marijuana?
Wondering what the difference between mainstream media and Joe Sixpack is? Take a look at the types of questions directed at President Barack Obama by Twitter users compared to those asked by White House journalists, in an outstanding visualization by the Boston Globe.
Twitter hosted a live video Twitter Town Hall on July 6 by Twitter, during which the President chatted with the microblog service’s Executive Chairman, Jack Dorsey. (Note his fantastic posture!) During the … Continue Reading
Obama’s Twitter Town Hall: Dorsey lobs hardball questions
Barack Obama sent his first tweet since announcing he would begin personally updating his social media accounts rather than have a campaign staff member do it.
The tweet was sent today during Obama’s Twitter Town Hall live broadcast hosted by Twitter Executive Chairman Jack Dorsey. The event let citizens ask the president questions by adding the #AskObama hash tag to the end of their message.
The tweet, sent from the White House’s official account, restated … Continue Reading
Obama’s first Twitter Town Hall announced for July 6
Now this is truly White House 2.0: President Obama will host his first Town Hall on Twitter next week on July 6th, the White House announced in a tweet this morning.
The White House has created a new twitter account, @townhall, that will serve as a central source of updates for the event. Twitter has also set up a special site for the event to promote the #AskObama hashtag, which will be the way for … Continue Reading
Obama’s Twitter account: Now with 100 percent more president
Barack Obama’s presidential re-election campaign announced today that the president himself would be updating his Facebook and Twitter accounts heading into 2012.
“We’re turning a page on the President’s Facebook account. From now on, Obama 2012 staff will use this account to keep you up to date not just on what the President’s doing every day, but on how millions of supporters around the country are building this campaign,” members of Obama’s campaign wrote via … Continue Reading
White House CIO Vivek Kundra quits
The White House on Thursday said the first-ever chief information officer of the federal government, Vivek Kundra, will leave in August after two-and-a-half years of service. No successor to Kundra has been named.
In a blog post, Office of Management and Budget Director Jacob Lew said Kundra had “cracked down on wasteful IT spending, saved $3 billion in taxpayer dollars, moved the government to the cloud, [and] strengthened the cybersecurity posture of the nation while … Continue Reading
