Photosynth Makes Browsing Inauguration Photos Fun – PC World.

“Nation”, “America”, “new”, “people” and “every” where among the most used words in Barack Obama’s inauguration speech.

A visual representation of the most used words in Barack Obama’s inauguration speech Photo: Wordle.net

A visual representation of the speech, which sizes the words based on the number of times they were used, shows that Mr Obama set an inclusive tone as he was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States.

“Change”, the word most associated with the new president during the election campaign, was not among the most-used words in his speech and in fact was only mentioned once. “Hope”, another word synonymous with the Obama campaign, was used only three times.

However, words like “common”, “generation”, “prosperity” and “world” featured prominently.

Typically for an inauguration speech, Mr Obama hardly mentioned words specifically associated with policy but instead focused on more general, aspirational terms. Also notable by omission was mention of the state of the global economy, with the word “economy” used only three times and “recession” not used at all.

The new president was clearly aware of the historical significance of his inauguration, using words like “history”, “generation”, “generations” and “time” several times throughout his speech.

George W Bush’s second inaugural speech, on the other hand, emphasised words like “freedom”, “liberty”, “country”.

Both presidents used “America” and “every” repeatedly.

Barack Obama’s inauguration speech as a tag cloud – Telegraph.

One of the many cool things about President Barack Obama’s inauguration (and the resultant excitement on sites like social network Facebook and micro-blogging service Twitter) is the new WhiteHouse.gov web site, which was unveiled as Obama was sworn in. As an Obama fan, it’s exciting to see his agenda (yes, the same one that was already available on the transition team’s Change.gov website) up on the White House site, and I’m glad that Obama’s “Director of New Media” Macon Phillips is promising to use the site to increase communication, transparency, and participation. Too bad it initially falls short on that promise, in ways significant and less significant.

Here’s one way that WhiteHouse.gov is a big step down from Change.gov: It doesn’t allow comments, as Valleywag’s Owen Thomas notes. But wait, there’s a generic “contact us” form that lets you send messages to the administration, just as you would with a giant corporation! Even better, the form limits your comments to 500 characters. That’s barely more than four “tweets” on Twitter. (In comparison, this short post has more than 1,400 characters.)  Goodness knows the administration shouldn’t waste time on comments with any nuance. I guess we’re supposed to save that for old-fashioned paper-and-ink letters, which face no such limit.

Also mildly annoying is the White House blog’s RSS feed, which doesn’t post full items, but rather just the first sentence of each post. Want to read the full text of President Obama’s first proclamation? You’ll have to click through to the blog. Granted, that’s a minor inconvenience, but it’s disappointing when an administration that’s supposed to be tech- and new media-savvy unveils a blog that’s redolent of old media. What, is Obama desperate for page views?

WhiteHouse.gov takes a page from Twitter’s playbook » VentureBeat.

he new president addresses the nation and speaks of work and sacrifice and makes clear that Bush policies will change.

Reporting from Los Angeles — Barack Hussein Obama took the oath of office today as the nation’s 44th president — and the nation’s first black chief executive — and told Americans shaken by economic despair and war that shared sacrifice would be required to draw the nation back to prosperity and peace.

“Our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed,” Obama declared in a ringing inaugural address. “Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin again the work of remaking America.

“For everywhere we look, there is work to be done,” he said, ticking off needs in the areas of the economy, energy, education and myriad other fronts. “All this we can do, and all this we will do.”

Obama’s day was replete with the emotion of the past — the son of a white Kansas mother and a Kenyan father took his oath from Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on the Bible used by Abraham Lincoln more than a century ago.

But his inaugural address, though filled with eloquent references to American will and its historic successes, was also a sharp attempt to wrest the country from the path set by outgoing President Bush.

Obama sets fresh course for ‘remaking America’ – Los Angeles Times.