Click to viewIf you didn't snag a ticket or the time off, there's still a multitude of video streams, pictures, and other ways to experience Barack Obama's inauguration Tuesday. Here's our growing list of the offerings.
Photo by Sapphireblue.
First things first: The Schedule: If you're wondering when to check out what at any of the sites and apps below, check out the Presidential Inaugural Committee's full schedule for each and every day's events.
Streaming video (at your desk)
UPDATE: The open-source, cross-platform solution: If you can run VLC Media Player on your desktop, you can feed CNN's live stream (and http-based streams) into it. From the "Media" menu, choose "Open Network," and paste this URL into it:
http://a466.l3760651364.c37606.g.lm.akamaistream.net/D/466/37606/v0001/reflector:51364.
The Official Sites: Just in case you don't have it bookmarked, add the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies' official site to your list of viewing venues. The JCCIC will have live video streams (with closed captioning), and the site itself has a wealth of information on everything inaugural, including clips of previous presidents' ceremonies and tons of minutiae (including recipes for inaugural luncheons, like Obama's "brace of American birds." The Presidential Inaugural Committee will also have streaming coverage, but it has to be noted that viewing the stream requires installing Microsoft's Silverlight 2 platform (and which, thereby, leaves Linux and mobile users out in the cold). If you're cool with that, though, ReadWriteWeb has a great blow-by-blow schedule of the PIC's offerings.
NBC/CBS/ABC: The Big Three are all in online with free streaming coverage. NBC's coverage is actually over at MSNBC's inauguration page. CBS' Inauguration webcast kicks off at 7 a.m. EST Tuesday and wraps up with a web-only wrap-up hosted by Katie Couric at 10 p.m. EST. CBS' coverage will also be carried on Joost's Everything Obama site. ABC News will likely host its live coverage at its 44th President site.
Hulu/Fox: Fox.com, Fox News, and Hulu will offer the same stream via Hulu's Obama video page starting at noon EST, then "on-demand" video from there on out. Hulu generally has top-notch video quality, even in full-screen mode—unless it gets jammed, as it did during some presidential debates. The site likely learned a few lessons in scaling, though, so it's definitely worth checking out.
C-SPAN: The non-partisan channel your cable company pays offers up all four of its channels online at all times, and Obama's inauguration should be no different. Stay tuned to C-SPAN's main page, however, for the debut of an Inauguration Hub that will feature, according to CNET, a kind of "control room" that lets visitors switch between four feeds of the goings-on on the fly.
Facebook/CNN: CNN.com and Facebook team up to offer a live inauguration feed with a social twist: You can sign into your Facebook account starting at 8 a.m. EST Tuesday at CNN.com Live and update your status alongside the streaming coverage, while seeing a real-time stream of your friends' status updates as well.
Current/Twitter: Same type of deal as above, just with Current doing the streaming at 11:30 a.m. EST and micro-blogging platform Twitter providing real-time tweets/updates. Multi-taskers checking out Current Twitters the Inauguration should twitter with the tag
#currentin their message.Ustream.tv Upstart live-streaming site Ustream is offering a live video feed of the inauguration at this page. No indication of what will be covered, exactly. A pre-recorded video of Obama's acceptance speech looked quite grainy when full-screened; if you're an iPhone/iPod touch user, scroll below to check out Ustream's (beta-invite) streaming app.
Other sites: Also likely to offer live video streams are the Washington Post, New York Times, and the BBC. Livestation offers international feeds from Al Jazeera, BBC, Euronews and France 24, while USA Today and the Associated Press will also offer live streams and coverage clips. Canadian news-watchers can get a live stream at CBC News.
On your phone
Ustream through your iPhone: UPDATE: The "Ustream Viewing Application" is live in the iTunes App Store, where it's a free download. It requires a Wi-Fi connection, which is somewhat odd for a mobile viewing app, but with it, you'll get the same live feed of the Ustream coverage mentioned above.
InaugurationReport apps: For both iPhones (search "inaugurationreport") and Androids (search IR09), the join project's mobile apps let you view semi-real-time Twitter updates, Flickr photos, text messages, and content upload from other mobile IR users from one handy app screen. Doesn't work on iPod touch models, unfortunately.
Text updates from the Inaugural Committee: Head to the PIC's official mobile update site for texts with news updates, weather and schedule changes, transportation information in D.C., and other topics. (For the basic news/alerts, text HISTORY to 56333). [via]
The social web
InaugurationReport.com: A joint project of NPR, CBS, American University, and many more, the site rounds up all the contributions made by on-the-street citizen reporters through Flickr, Twitter, text message, YouTube, and IR's own mobile apps (see below). It's a nice way to condense all of those mediums into one regularly-refreshing page. For a similarly crushed-together view, try a Big Buzz search on Icerocket.
Flickr: The official multi-user inauguration pool is here, but the Presidential Inaugural Committee has its own stream, as does the president-elect himself (though not update in a while ... wonder why?).
Twitter search: The hot searches are inauguration and the #inaug09 tag.
Photosynth to create massive 3D compilation of oath-taking: If you or somebody you know in D.C. for the big moment wants to contribute to a gigantically cool 3D mesh of the moment Obama takes the oath, email a photo (one at a time, up to 10MB per pic and three separate submissions allowed) to
[email protected], then, later that day, head to cnn.com/themoment to see the big mash-up, powered by Microsoft's Photosynth technology.
Your suggestions
There's definitely a wealth of other places that will offer video, pictures, commentary and other updates from the big day Tuesday, and you might have run across a few not listed here. By all means, tell us (and your fellow readers) about them in the comments, and we'll update this here monstrosity with more links and suggestions as they come in.