Internet traffic spiked during the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States as people watched the historic event online in a variety of ways such as viewing live streaming videos, looking at photos on interactive maps or reading twitter feeds. Akamai, the leader in online content delivery, reported record traffic as it peaked at over 7 million concurrent streams of the inauguration to audiences worldwide. Wireless networks in the Washington D.C. area were jammed as people were making calls, text messaging about or sending images of their personal experience. I agree with Chris Snyder’s blog on Wired that Barack Obama is the country’s first tech oriented President and the results of his campaign really show.

Barack Obama and his team leveraged today’s technology to their advantage ever since his presidential campaign started; raising half a billion dollars with online contributions alone, reaching out to voters through online social networking, using an email list of 13 million addresses, text messaging and much more. It is clear that the internet is now beyond its infancy and has become a very viable and powerful mean of communication. And when further coupled with traditional media such as television, radio, print or mail correspondence, it can multiply to a greater effect. In the past, we had the Amazons, the Ebay’s, the Napster’s, Myspace’s and Youtubes, but usage had never transcended very far beyond the techno-savvy demographic until now.

Even in a down economy, as banks fail, credit is frozen and advertising budgets are slashed, the Internet is thriving as a practical channel to deliver information. Whitehouse.gov unveiled a radical new site design exactly one minute after President Obama’s swearing in and promises to have non-emergency legislation published on the site five days prior to the President’s signing or veto so people can review and comment. Maybe President Obama will have his podcasts, twitter or video blogs to keep a nation together just as President Franklin D. Roosevelt did with his “Fireside Chats” on the radio during the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

We really need that “On Moving Forward to Greater Freedom and Greater Security” address on energy independence and financial solvency at these times.