Obama to revive fireside chats for a Web 2.0 world

Today Change.gov announced that President-elect Obama will likely be giving weekly YouTube speeches, similar to the weekly radio White House addresses of the recent past, and, more tellingly, the radio-based fireside chats that FDR used so effectively to inform and comfort Depression Era listeners.



In the early summer, during Online Community Month, I discussed how Senator Obama’s campaigning style differed significantly from other candidates, including Hillary Clinton. Others have termed this new approach networked leadership.

Today’s announcement appears to be another example of how our president-elect is leveraging new technology to organize, and, well, lead.

It gives me hope.