Technology companies are hoping President-Elect Barack Obama will spend millions on new IT bells and whistles for the U.S. government. In the meantime, however, a few companies, including Microsoft and YouTube, are jumping on Obama’s high-tech bandwagon to make Inauguration Day available on the Web.
After winning the nod from the 2008 Olympics, Microsoft announced that the Presidential Inaugural Committee has selected its Silverlight technology for video streaming of the swearing-in ceremony at http://www.pic2009.org. Silverlight already streamed video of a Baltimore event on the whistle-stop tour that took Obama and Vice President-Elect Joe Biden to Washington, D.C., from Philadelphia.
“Microsoft is proud to be part of this event by helping to bring the inauguration activities online,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft general counsel. “Just as during the campaign itself, Internet technology is enabling people around the world to participate more directly in historic events in new and exciting ways.”
Silverlight, Not Flash
In August the 2008 Democratic National Convention used Silverlight to stream convention proceedings, including Obama’s acceptance speech.
“This is good PR for Silverlight. There is a trend toward more direct outreach to people from the Internet,” said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. “The Obama team has been very successful using new media and mobile and online tools, and I think that’s going to continue.”
There are many formats for streaming content, including Adobe Flash, a major competitor to Silverlight. So landing the deal to stream the Obama inauguration is a big win for Silverlight, according to Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy for Jupitermedia.
“This shows that Microsoft is gaining some traction with its technology going forward,” Gartenberg said. “Having said that, it’s a real battle for them against entrenched standards like Flash. But this is a battle that will be fought stream by stream, one at a time.”
YouTube Downloads
YouTube is making…