Mathew Ingram on Obama's inauguration online, Globe and Mail (Jan 15)
Mathew Ingram answered questions about accessing sites that are covering the inauguration of Barack Obama.
He began by explaining why people who are not in the US are often blocked from viewing streamed video from Hulu or Joost. This is generally because a distributor who has paid to broadcast the content would not want it given away on the Web - and so opts to block it.
But, everyone can tap into the Twitter lines. Ingram has many suggestions about Twitter pages / feeds to follow (such as Twitter / inauguration or Obama Inaugural ) and how to search Twitter to pick up conversation.
Another live method to use or view is Cover It Live, a Canadian service that makes it easy to host a live blog showing text, chat, live video. Globe and Mail reporters will be using it on Jan 20 for the inauguration - "We're hoping to have a live-blog/chat going on the day of the inauguration, so that we can talk about it not just with other Globe journalists who are covering the event, but with people who are there and Twittering about it or want to comment."
The Globe and Mail will also have a hub with a variety of content about US Presidential inaugurations. Link given was http://www.theglobeandmail.com/Obamainauguration
For searching for more information or events, Ingram recommends using several key words or finding specialty services (Twitter in this case) -- "include as many unique keywords as you can -- Obama and inauguration and "live stream" for example, or Obama and inauguration and video and streaming, or something like that. That's where Twitter search like search.twitter.com or Twitscoop or Tweetscan can help, because it's a smaller group of people who are already focused on what you're trying to find. "
MORE: Learn more ways to virtually participate from this article in PCWorld -- Obama Inauguration: Be There Without Being There by Mark Sullivan, (Jan 14) -- "These sites and services, used together or separately, will immerse you in the media experience of Obama's inauguration on Tuesday."