This year the Tour has taken it to a new level and created what popular cycling blogger BikeSnobNYC calls “nano-coverage” which I think is a fascinating concept that we’ll see more of. With Lance Armstrong’s 1.4 million strong Twitter following and 48 cyclists who aren’t Lance there is now a constant flow of coverage that actually competes with the heavy TV coverage. And when you combine the two there is a certain surround sound effect that creates a level of coverage and access that we’ve never seen before.

Athletes are adopting Twitter in big ways but I think we’ll see more and more nano-coverage in other arenas such as the recent live feedback from politicians during joint sessions of Congress. But at the end of the day I think the fundamental change that Twitter (and whatever it becomes or is eventually replaced by) is that people can now be their own real-time journalists.

We are in a survival of the fittest media environment and at the end of the day good content will filter to the top. The NYT still has it too. They realize that they need to keep producing great stories no matter where they appear. They get the transition and are adapting quickly to the digital space while still serving their faithful newsprint audience.

It will be intersting to see how this all shakes out.

Frank Rich’s NYT column on Sunday. He makes the point that the movie industry was just as worried about the rise of Television. I think that is true to an extent but the difference is that the Internet has changed the landscape in more fundamental ways. Control has been handed over to the user whereas with Television there were more channels and it was a game changer but it was an extension of the same medium still controlled by broadcasters, studios and producers.

The Howard Kurtz Washington Post piece brings up much better points as he takes his own industry for task for not being more innovative. He looks at the real problem which is the economics of it all. He rightly points out that online advertising is not the answer but leaves room for the fact that it isn’t too late to innovate. People are turning to trusted newspapers online they just need to start figuring out how to better serve them in the new medium and then figure out how to pay for it all.

I’m happy to see mass transit, weatherization and education get some much needed love in the recently passed stimulus bill. I wish one more item got some attention though. It never comes up in political conversation, and hardly ever in casual conversation either, but I think if it made a comeback it would help strengthen our communities. This once important American fixture would at once increase neighborly discourse and ease our neuroses.

Yeah, I’m talking about the front porch.

I have not done the research but I bet one could chart the decline of American civility with the gradual replacement of the front porch with the two car garage. Garages used to be relegated rightly to the back of houses but over the years have crept forward so much so  that they are often the primary element of any modern facade.

I for one think we should once again park our cars behind the house and bring back the porch. You know, a nice big one with the romantic swing and lets all have a beer in ear shot of our neighbors. It might just be what the doctor ordered.

Could it be true? Is the populous pissed to the point that they reached into the bubble of Washington DC and swatted away the Daschle nomination like a blocked shot. Now, i’m not suggesting that phones don’t light up on a daily basis in Hill offices but if Reich is right it had to be quite a groundswell.

On one hand it stinks because Daschle is just what we needed to shepherd real reform in an area where most citizens want to see action.

But if he is a casualty of an informed and annoyed citizenry than it may be a small price to pay. Maybe it is much needed shot across the bow to Congress and the Administration that people are watching and they want action. Not the same old posturing and shell games. And certainly not stupid chart gimmicks.

Let’s not be fooled into a sense that world changed overnight and everyone woke up in a shiny happy get along world. Much of our politics is driven by ideologues with a narrow agenda so we need to be conscious of creating environment that listens to different viewpoints in an open and honest way. Otherwise the people who hold the power change but real systemic change never happens because citizens only listen to the ideas they want to hear. There may be more information at people’s finger tips but so are the tools to filter everything else out. This leaves people uninformed and uninterested because the only news they see is mudslinging and score keeping.

That type of journalism just drives the spike deeper into the divides that exist in this country. The most recent example of this is the attack of Robert Reich on comments made about the stimulus package by conservative pundits. His talk of inclusiveness is used as a bludgeon to stoke fear and anger.

A large majority of Americans may be happy with our current leadership but we have a long way to go in healing our partisan wounds. One important item our new President may want to add to his list is a renewed journalistic ethic that works to elevate the national discourse and not let it devolve into a handful of dangerous echo chambers.

From Pepsi’s new Obamaish logo to Ikea’s new Change Starts at Home campaign, consumer brands are out in full force to capitalize on the goose bumps of Obamamania. I personally find it slightly insulting for a Swedish company like Ikea to insinuate that the answer to people’s current misfortune is a new bookshelf and that Pepsi somehow signifies hope. But I guess I should be happy that for once a politician (one that I happen to like and admire) ran a campaign deserving of such flattery.

The other issue is that people don’t seem to understand that “change” was a campaign theme not an administration theme. Change happened. Barack is our new President. Now it is time to get to work. The theme of his Inaugural address was “Renewing America’s Promise” which has a much more get down to work ring to it. It is even what appears on the presidential limousine.

So, a word to all the marketers out there. Get this change thing out of your system quickly and move on, because as it says on www.whitehouse.gov: “Change has come to America.” It isn’t still coming, it is here. So let’s get to work.

The video is here:

And incidently… I like clicking on these pseudo government Web sites being put out by the transition team that look good and not like what we’re used to. Hope they are able to reset the bar for .gov.