Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Welcome to Congress, YouTube

With 1 week to go until inauguration, Obama's social media campaign tactics, which included Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and others, have already inspired change with YouTube and congress. YouTube announced yesterday that it has teamed up with congress to create YouTube pages for both the House and the Senate in order to show you what it is lawmakers do everyday. From Washington you can view Senator Cantwell's page, Congressman Dave Reichert (who has been on YouTube since 2007 - kudos to Dave!)Doc Hastings and Jay Inslee.

Promoting transparency in government is definitely a change and one that can only lead to good things. Maybe this will encourage more companies to do the same. As we see more lawmakers using YouTube to post clips from their appearances on news channels such as CNN, maybe we'll see some of the rules change on YouTube as well since we all know that companies aren't currently allowed to post third party content with out permission from the news channel.

From the YouTube Channel:

"This is your backstage pass to the U.S. Senate, on YouTube. Find your Senator's YouTube channel by clicking on the map, or discover senatorial committee channels by clicking on Washington, D.C.The content in each Senator's YouTube channel is controlled by each Senate office. The Senate Hub is maintained by YouTube.com, as a way for you to engage directly with your Senators on YouTube."

No comments: