Future:Media:Change

No need for a TV to follow today’s marathon health care summit as video sites across the web featured Obama’s conversation with Republicans and Democrats. From the White House Live, to YouTube, to Ustream and LiveStream, each site offered their own tools for viewer participation.

I’m liveblogging the madness of “Deal Day” here in Copenhagen. Will Obama be a hero? Will China play ball? Will small islands survive the century? Will I drink some Glogg?

2008 was a big year for online communities. Obama’s online team showed everyone that amazing things can happen when you provide your community with the right tools and motivation. Epolitcs.com has outlined some of the best practices in epolitics, many of which have a direct correlation to the work of nonprofits working in the online sector.

Ads from Greenpeace and the TckTckTck coalition blanket Copenhagen International Airport featuring world leaders apologizing for their failure to act on climate change. The ads show aged leaders in 2020 with the text, “I’m sorry. We could’ve stopped catostrophic climate change…we didn’t.”

More troops or not more troops, that is the question the international media has been obsessed with for weeks. As Obama announces the deployment of at least 30.000 more troops, ordinary Afghans are concerned that this will only mean more conflict in and around their villages. Will their voices be heard through the media maelstrom?

This chart isn’t an Apple’s stock price jump after a Steve Job’s announcement, it’s Twitter traffic for ‘Copenhagen‘ after news broke Wednesday that Obama would be heading to Denmark. This is by far the largest portion of traffic the term has seen in the past 180 days. Same goes for ‘climate‘, ‘warming‘, and ‘COP15‘. These charts make two obvious points…

Obama attending Copenhagen is a strong signal of his administration’s commitment to the issue. However, the floated 17% reduction below 2005 levels by 2020 is well under the 25%-40% reduction below 1990 levels the International Panel on Climate Change is recommending for developed countries and on the low end of proposed carbon emissions reduction goals from other countries (16%-23%). From one of the world’s top emitters, this is a soberly realistic goal rather than a hopeful or ambitious one.