Obama’s Internet Use Will Change World

One need look no further than changedotgov to understand how Obama and future presidents will use the Internet to communicate in a completely unfiltered way with citizens and the world’s population.  Obama uploaded his weekly radio address earlier today.  Already a 155,000 people on YouTube  have seen it on by Saturday at 5PM EST.   Remeber all of this behavior is “ondemand.”  People opting in to watch.

Meanwhile Obama is using his campaign infrastructure to continue to send his constituents his messages including today’s address.

In today’s speech, Obama says he’s going to pass progressive legislation to invest in alternative energy and national infrastructure.  The Washington lobbying machine will gear up to drive those dollars to individual states and to ensure that traditional speical interests (Oil, Auto, Teachers Union)  maintain their traditional hegemony.

Obama and his administration have a chance to seriously dampen special interest power by mobilizing his army of volunteers and millions of Americans to send emails, call congressmen and even to raise money to combat certain special interests.  The question is will Americans cotinue to engage beyond the election?  Will they stay motivated to fight for what they believe in, even when a presidential race is not on the line?

Obama’s domestic Agenda

Today’s radio address begins the beginning of a progressive political era in Washington.  Obama has said that he will create a sustained economic stimulus plan focused on improving the country’s infrastructure and investing in the still amorphous alternative energy economy.

The Republicans held the line this week with the automotive industry and with Waxman replacing Dingell on the House’s energy committee, the cards are lining up to focus all governmental intervention in Detroit on huge fuel efficiency improvements.  Fortunately, for Obama, who really wants to invest in environmental and educational change, he will face little resistance to spending initiatives this spring.  The country’s political leadership is scared not to spend money during this recession.  As we have written before, some people fear we really are heading into a depression and think the economy will fall off a cliff in 2009.

Obama now has a chance to use the disastrous economic climate to invest in a progressive agenda on his three key issues: Energy, Education, and healthcare.  On energy, expect to see tax incentives and investments made in what is likely to be the fastest growing sector in America:  Alternative energy.  People will get rewarded for making their homes more energy efficient, producing wind power, recycling, and my longshot, riding bicycles in lieu of cars.

Obama has a chance to radically address education.  We do not know who Obama’s choice for Education will be, but I’m hopeful he will make his most radical appointment here.  Today’s NYT says that Obama will govern from the center-right with appointments like Clinton, Daschle, and Geithner.  We have to govern from the radical progressive on education.  We have to try anything and everything.  We have to be provocative.  The Atlantic ran a well-researched story about Washington D.C. School Chancellor Michelle Rhee this month.  That’s the kind of innovation we need now.

Finally, what can Obama do in healthcare that doesn’t cost a fortune and will not face resistance from the HMO, Pharma, and AMA lobbies?  This is the toughest and most concerning of the issues because so many people have no insurance and the cost of healthcare has risen so much faster on a percentage basis than anything other than higher education.  I’m most worried about this issue, but I think the appointment of Daschle shows it’s going to be more reform rather than revolution and I’m ok with that.  If we can get radical change on energy and education I could live with reform in healthcare — at least this term.

Coolest Company in the World

This week, Better Place cut a $1bn dollar deal to bring electric car charging stations to the San Francisco area.  Better Place is without question, the most ambitious startup to ever come out of Israel and perhaps the company that has the best chance of restructuring the automobile industry in the next 5 years.

The Better Place Station

Better Place will replace fossil fuel burning cars with electricity consuming cars using a series of battery swapping stations around a given metropolitan area.  Nissan is the first company to build the cars.  Israel became the first country to commit to building the infrastructure and now Denmark and San Francisco are joining them.

Remember when everybody (Jobs/Bezos etc) hyped the Segue has an urban lifestyle changing device?   Well I’m hyping Better Place. To be sure, creating electricity can create CO2 emissions when we use coal, but there are many sustainable and renewable ways to create electricity. Denmark, for example, gets 20% of their electricity from wind.

There will be much more to say about Better Place going forward.  I am following the company closely.  But I wanted to introduce you for two reasons:

First, the wheels are really coming off the economy.  Everybody is terrified.  Shai Agassi gave us hope this week  announcing  that he will raise $1bn (in equity!) to change the Bay Area and help us out of global energy and environmental crises.  Second, to me Better Place symbolizes the rise of Israel as a first world economic power.  I don’t care how small the population is.  I don’t care about the geographic location.  The cooperation between universities, the military and the government coupled with a relentless entrepreneurial spirit among Israelis makes it the most undervalued population in the world.

Better Place is headquartered in Silicon Valley, but make no mistake, it’s an Israeli multinational company.