This is late in coming, but since it was such a great idea, it deserves some applause. Tony Blair congratulated new French PM Nicolas Sarkozy via YouTube...in French.

I know, I could have made it easy on you, and directed you to the English version, but for two reasons: one, its great to see world leaders interacting on such a personal basis (even with each other), and two, to illustrate how Web 2.0 is truly forming a global online community. 10 Downing Street just opened up its own YouTube account--perhaps learning from David Cameron, the leader of the British Conservative Party, whose two-minute television programs, WebCameron, have become a YouTube sensation.

Though elected American leaders are not likely to follow suit (could you imagine the comments?), candidates and Congresspersons reaching out to their voter bases through the use of homemade video should be a no-brainer. While these last elections taught us that candidates can be broken by video--see e.g. George Allen--there's no reason that video can't be a proactive tool, and one that can serve to show the human side of people we normally view only from afar at campaign rallies (David Cameron's first video is him washing dishes). They allow candidates to speak freely on a variety of subjects, and even if scripted, seem more natural than a television interview (and probably infinitely more friendly) AND its easy to use--your digital camera can take short videos and both Microsoft and Mac have fairly inexpensive novice video-editing software (OSX and Vista both come with a form of it, too). YouTube is incredibly user friendly (though be sure not to use copyrighted material, or you risk removal).

Kansas State's YouTube Ethanography project set out to show that we are undergoing a bit of a societal (and communication) revolution, with users leading the way. While the web has always been about empowering people to create and market their own content, Web 2.0's tools--blogs, Wikis...and YouTube--are making it possible for people to connect and interact without the traditional boundaries or the (giant) setback of cost. For the cost of a WebCam or a nice digital camera and some software, even city council candidates can connect and interact with potential voters, and occasionally, can see the results of their efforts when their voters make and post responses.

Tony Blair was able to bridge the Channel, and circumvent the traditional channels to communicate directly with Sarkozy and users around the world. It should be no problem for Republicans to bridge a couple of states.

In fact, they're already doing it...