• The Broadband Inauguration and Beyond

    Another milestone in broadband video's evolution will be marked today with the first "Broadband Inauguration." Like last summer's Olympic games, broadband will make it possible for millions of viewers around the world to experience Barack Obama's dramatic inauguration.

    Last Thursday Mediaweek had a pretty good roundup of all the various news and entertainment web sites that are going to be streaming the proceedings live. Clearly there is going to be an intense battle for online viewers today, with various interactive and participative offerings planned.

    While the bells and whistles will be fun, for me what's most noteworthy about the broadband coverage is the unprecedented access and sheer convenience that broadband has introduced for so many people. This will be particularly noticeable today for office-workers who lack access to a TV. For them broadband means they won't miss any of these historic moments. That's pretty transformative, and powerful.

     

    Ordinarily VideoNuze is focused on the disruption and opportunities that broadband video is creating throughout the media landscape. But what the broadband inauguration (and President-elect Obama's use of the medium during his campaign as well as his weekly YouTube addresses) also shows us is that at a far more important societal level, broadband may be the most powerful communication and engagement technology ever created. The new President's call for an "era of responsibility," will be greatly facilitated by broadband's unprecedented ability to connect him directly to the world.

    The broadband inauguration is indeed a big milestone. I expect many more are yet to come.

    What do you think? Post a comment.
     
    (Follow-up: Akamai has now released inauguration stats. At the peak of 12:15pm ET, it was delivering over 7 million active simultaneous streams, surpassing more than 2 terabits per second. I'm sure we'll see plenty more stats from others soon.)