Today the world will witness Barack Obama take the oath of office to become the 44th President of the United States.

Certainly history will be made, but how it's recorded is arguably of equal significance. With millions of Americans attending the ceremony, US news station CNN is using Microsoft Photosynth to document this event.

Photosynth takes 2D images and renders them to create a 3D space. Check out the video above to see how it works.

By encouraging each person with a camera to take a photo as Obama places his hand on the Bible and takes the oath, CNN is creating a fantastically detailed visual account of this occasion, from every conceivable angle.

President Obama may be the man that makes history, but it will be millions of Americans that join together to capture that moment using digital technology. Amazing.

Check out the photos in CNN's Photosynth here.

Last Saturday we talked about the principal issues raised in the Orange Future of Politics debate. It was interesting stuff and really got us thinking. Now we have the edited highlights for you, so click play above and away you go.

Do you think UK politicians are ready to embrace technology to reach us, the voters? We think the next few years will be fascinating times for technology in British politics and we want to hear you think too, so get commenting.

(And you can read what Total Politics magazine had to say about it here.)

The Feed went to Westminster last Tuesday and took a front row seat at the Orange Future of Politics debate. The main crux of the paper presented by Orange was the ways technology could reshape British politics.

We’re talking blogs, social network pages, YouTube channels, emails and text messages: but do our politicians understand the online and mobile advantage?

Speakers were Graham Fisher of Orange Research and Development in the UK, Tom Savigar of Future Laboratories who co-wrote the report, political blogger Iain Dale and the chair was MP Nigel Evans. Here’s the best bits…

We live in an age of total connectivity. Tom Savigar asked the room: who turns their phone off at night? No one said yes, which is pretty enlightening.

So if we’re not switching off, why aren’t politicians switching on? Iain Dale is one of a small band of political figures who is. He believes that most MPs are technophobes who see online and mobile as a threat, not an opportunity.

But, Dale asserts, it doesn’t have to be that way. A blog raises profile and important issues. Comments can be used to see the positives and negatives about things that get under your skin. And, Dale argues, that’s a good thing because well, that’s keeping it real.

Of interest in the Orange Tech Lab is the idea of ‘finding’ people through technology, says Graham Fisher. Imagine using your laptop or mobile to see who can answer your questions. Can your local councillor respond by email? Can your MP send you a text from Parliament? Or can someone talk to you online in realtime?

Take a look at the image above. It represents a futuristic parliamentary office and an MP using the web and phone to solve a problem with all the people involved. It shows how technology can connect MP with voter.

Social networking is a strong contender for creating meaningful encounters between MPs and voters online, argues Tom Savigar. We might not attend townhall meetings very much nowadays, but like-minded people can form digital communities and campaign positively together.

The conversation between technology and politics has been kick-started. Other bloggers have been talking about it too, including Iain Dale.

What do you think? Do you think attitudes will change dramatically enough to make some of these theories a reality? Tell it to The Feed.

The presidential campaign Stateside has started an exciting buzz about the partnership between technology and politics. Tomorrow the Orange Future of Politics report will be launched at a lunchtime debate at Westminster and The Feed is going to be there.

Written with expert trend watchers Future Laboratory and drawing on ideas from MPs, bloggers and from within Orange itself, the report examines the exciting ways technology could transform politics in the UK.

We're particularly intrigued by Wikilaws that would allow the public to have their say about new legislation, and the concept of MPs interacting with voters through realtime online discussion. The use of holographic projection could become an everyday occurrence in Parliament, as the image of David Cameron being beamed into the Commons shows above. This kind of technology means there would be nothing to stop one of us beaming in to take part in Prime Minister's Questions. Wow.

The digital gauntlet has been thrown down and later this week we'll be reporting back on the core concepts. We'll also have a video with all the highlights, but in the meantime you can read the report in full by visiting the Orange Press Office and downloading the report from the right hand side.

Some Obama inspiration for The Feed today. We learn that the President Elect is preparing to be prised away from his beloved BlackBerry once he enters the Oval Office.

We've already talked about how the Democrat campaign was fought and won with the help of digital communication. Throughout Obama insisted that instead of wading through stacks of files, he had all campaign updates and important documents sent to his mobile.

But security at the White House has to be tight so it's bye bye BlackBerry, hello paper mountain. We bet relinquishing his trusty handheld will be a little weird for the new American leader.

It makes us wonder: would you be able to kiss the online world goodbye? Some people have conducted experiments to give up their mobiles, the internet and their email to see how they get along. Then they blog about it... which surely just proves the theory that the daily buzz of online life is impossible for many of us to do without.

As much as we'd like to run a similar experiment to blog about, The Feed wouldn't get written if we did! But do you think you could go offline or would you hanker after your mobile and laptop all too soon? Tell us what you think.

Image courtesy of Adam Mulligan.

As America waves bye bye to Bush and welcomes Democrat Barack Obama into the White House, we reflect on how this Presidential election has been different from others.

Certainly more money and time were spent on the campaign trail than ever before, and we saw the oldest Presidential candidate in Republican John McCain standing shoulder to shoulder with Sarah Palin, the first woman to stand as running mate. But what got us most intrigued is how the Obama camp used digital media to interact with and engage voters.

Automated landline calls, known as robo-calls, have been a standard way to canvas voters in the States for a while now, but their impact on tempting the electorate to the polls is debatable. While McCain stuck to this arguably antiquated method of communication, Obama took the power of text and used it to his advantage.

Over the 21 months of campaigning, millions of supporters signed up to receive text alerts reminding them to register to vote, to remember to go to the polling station (apparently many simply forget!) and to encourage their friends and families to do the same.

But Obama's greatest SMS coup was when he signed up hundreds of thousands of mobile numbers by telling people that if they texted the campaign, then he would text them back as soon as he had made his choice for Vice President.

Not everyone was a fan of Obama using text, but as a simple and cost effective marketing tool it clearly galvanized the people. In comparison McCain failed to use an SMS campaign, so could this have contributed to his failure to lay claim to the Oval Office?

Another vital part of the Obama campaign was his online precinct captain training tool, which monitored and supported canvassers across America. Also in the Democrat digital arsenal was a bespoke social networking site called My.BarackObama, which Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes helped advise on. With endless videos of Barack speeches and TV adverts posted on YouTube this was definitely a campaign that understood the power of digital communication.

This heralds an exciting opportunity for politics to embrace internet and mobile to get people excited about the future of government. We're certainly interested to see if British politicians take a leaf out of Barack's book.

Image courtesy of transplanted mountaineer.