1. President Obama was the only United States president who refused to give up his cell phone, saying that he couldn't be separated from his BlackBerry. He was even more technologically innovated yesterday when he utilized Twitter for a press-conference-like webcast yesterday, titled Town Hall. A new Twitter handle was created, @townhall, and people tweeted their questions to @townhall with the hashtag #AskObama in them. The question retweeted the most was displayed on a TV screen at the webcast - obviously it had to be appropriate. Obama was read the questions live by Jack Dorsey, Twitter's Executive Chairman. As he answered the questions live, @whitehouse, the official White House Twitter, summarized the responses into 140 characters and tweeted them. It was a very successful event - even though you had to keep buffering the live stream since so many people were viewing it and I think that this might be an indication of how the government might use new media in the future to better connect with Americans.
2. Facebook held a press conference yesterday and announced that they will be adding several new features to the social network. The feature that's getting the most buzz is thanks to a partnership between Facebook and Skype. Now video calling will be made available on Facebook! There will also be a new feature of being able to conduct group chatting instead of with just one person at a time. A lot of speculation is that Facebook is getting nervous with the introduction of Google+, Google's new social media network, and is launching these new products as a way to stay in the competition.
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