There was a striking parallel last week when two of the worlds most famous leadersBarack Obama and Pope Benedict XVIunveiled new presences on the Internet. Minutes before Obama took the oath of office as the 44th US president,his people pushed the button on a revamped,edgier Web site for whitehouse.gov. It came with video links,a blog and a home page so sleek and styled it could have come from an upscale retailer. Obama surrounded himself early on with people who grasped the Internet as a powerful communications tool,and it was immediately clear he planned to carry over his online strengths from his campaign to the office of the presidency. On Saturday,the Presidents first weekly address,to promote his economic aid plan,came in the form of a video sent to the White House Web site and YouTube. The pontiff also made headlines last week when the Vatican announced it was launching a channel on YouTube,youtube.com Pope Benedict praised the benefits of social networking,although he strongly cautioned about obsessive use. Many people who heard the news probably shared a similar thought: if the 2,000-year-old papacy is on YouTube,shouldnt I get with it? The dozen videos of papal speeches on the site the first few days drew a couple hundred views each and few,if any,comments,but it wasnt meant to compete with music videos. World leaders communicating directly with the public,without the filter of the media,is seen now not as threatening but as a logical advance. It was not that way 25 years ago when Apple Computers famed 1984 Super Bowl commercial depicted a future in which we would be ruled by leaders projected on a big screen and we would need to use the personal computer ourselves to break free. The future that Apple projected,even the product it was pitching,most people couldnt conceive of. A computer seemed about as necessary in 1984 as the automobile seemed to a horse-and-buggy society nearly a century earlier. Now,many peopleincluding BlackBerry-addicted heads of statefeel anxious if theyre out of touch with their Facebook or e-mail accounts for any period. As the Apple 1984 commercial portrayed with Orwellian imagery,computers are empowering the public,not just its leaders. Obamas icy reaction on his first day to Vice President Joe Bidens lame attempt at a joke about the botched oath of office recitation by Chief Justice John Roberts drew more than 100,000 hits on YouTube and gained the new president a few new fans impressed with his post-partisan approach. The fashion choices of first lady Michelle Obama could fill a good chunk of the Internet alone,with more than 4 million blog references. Even Aretha Franklins hat at the inauguration ceremony was an object of immense fascination online. The commercial Internet evolved during Bill Clintons presidency,and blogs and video-streaming came along during George W. Bushs. But Obamas is the 2.0 computer presidencythe first one in which the team in the White House and the public it serves have a comfort level,even a craving,with online communication.
