Winston-Salem Journal Editorial

Some online retailers want a free ride from North Carolina residents.

They want customers from North Carolina to buy their wares, but they don’t want to pay any taxes here. They aren’t even willing to collect sales taxes on the products they sell.

And just because the legislature is considering a tax they don’t like, they’ve fired all of the small businesses in the state with whom they had commission arrangements.

Overstock.com and Amazon.com have ended their commission programs with state-based Web sites. That means small-business people here will no longer have access to their huge online-sales networks.
The dispute centers on a tax proposal – not yet a law – to require online retailers like Overstock and Amazon to collect our state sales tax.

Some background: Major online retailers often sell items from both their own warehouses and those of other businesses. The latest best-selling book, for example, might be available both new and used. Often, clicking the “used” tab will send a customer to a small bookstore somewhere in the United States that is selling through one of these major retailers on a commission basis.

Many such small businesses operate in this fashion in North Carolina, but the exact number has not been disclosed.

It is not constitutional for North Carolina to collect sales tax on interstate purchases unless the seller has a business presence in this state. Although Overstock and Amazon say they don’t have that presence, the proposed legislation says that their affiliations with the local businesses create that presence. Thus, the sponsoring legislators say the proposal is constitutional.

Hawaii and Rhode Island already have such a law, and California is considering one. Online retailers have fired their commission businesses in the first two states, also.

Consumers should consider the real meaning of this activity. Neither online retailer has stopped pitching its products to North Carolina consumers.

They still want our business. But they aren’t willing to employ any of our neighbors.

Although these businesses profit from this state, they are unwilling to pay, or collect, taxes here. They are essentially saying that if North Carolinians want to educate their children and keep their streets safe, they are on their own. The retailers feel no responsibility to contribute to our social institutions just because they are making a profit here. That responsibility rests with other merchants, not them.

North Carolinians can display their displeasure by either buying online through less selfish retailers or by visiting their local merchants for the same goods. If Amazon and Overstock want out of North Carolina, maybe we want out of them, also.

WASHINGTON  – President Barack Obama kicked off a first-of-its-kind Internet era town hall meeting at the White House, thanking participants for watching online.

Speaking before taking questions sent in by online readers and from people assembled at the White House, Obama said the precedent-setting meeting Thursday was an “an important step” toward creating a broader avenue for information about his administration.

The president said, “When I was running for president, I promised to open the White House for the American people. This is an important step toward achieving that goal.”

Before the meeting got under way, the White House had gotten over 100,000 online questions.

WASHINGTON  – President Barack Obama is planning an online town hall-style meeting on the White House’s Web site this Thursday.

Submit Your Questions Now

The White House says Obama will answer questions about the economy and other topics at WhiteHouse.gov. Visitors to the Web site can determine what questions the president will answer.

During his campaign, Obama used the Internet to connect with voters, mobilize supporters and raise a record-shattering amount of money. He has used that online approach during the first months of his presidency.

President George W. Bush’s administration also took questions online at the White House’s Web site.

RALEIGH, N.C. – Speaker Joe Hackney has cleared the way for sessions of the North Carolina House of Representatives to be digitally recorded and published online.

The easily accessible archive of each day’s floor session is available by visiting the General Assembly’s website, http://www.ncleg.net. The site has been visited about 1,400 times since the first day of the legislative session on Jan. 28, according to the General Assembly’s Information Systems Division.

“I want the people of North Carolina to understand what happens in the House of Representatives. That’s essential to good government,” Speaker Hackney said. “Recording our sessions and making that audio available to anyone at anytime allows everyone a chance to follow our votes and debates. It’s truly an easy, cost-effective way to provide access.”

Previously, the House broadcast live streaming audio of its sessions online, but didn’t record or archive them. The change in procedure won’t cost any additional money, Information Systems Division officials said. The General Assembly has sufficient storage space for the archive and didn’t have to purchase any additional software.

Groups that advocate for more open government praised the change.

“The work of the NC House of Representatives is now truly the people’s business,” said Jane Pinsky, director of the
NC Coalition for Lobbying and Government Reform. “Previous sessions of the House are now as close as the click of a computer key. Teachers will be able to use past sessions to teach their students about how our government really works and citizens will be able to know what their representatives are doing for them.”

“We are very pleased with the Speaker’s decision to archive the audio recordings of House sessions,” said Damon Circosta, executive director of the NC Center for Voter Education. “This allows anyone across the state to listen in on the people’s business at anytime. Once again the House is leading the way by helping foster a more informed citizenry.”

“This is another important step in providing the citizens of our state greater transparency of the people’s business,” said Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause NC. “It’s the kind of access the public wants and expects in today’s high-tech information age. It will help strengthen our democracy.”

In an inauguration defined by a sense of change, the experience of watching Barack Obama take office was fittingly revolutionary.

Like never before, Americans watched the inauguration of an incoming president online through live video streaming across their computers. And wholly wrapped up in following Inauguration Day 2009 on the Web was reacting to them – blogging, vlogging and tweeting.

Essentially every major news outlet offered live feeds on their respective Web sites in what was potentially the most Web-driven coverage of a significant news event yet. It was partly out of necessity, since many viewers were at work in front of their computers – and away from TV sets – for the midday swearing in.

It was also a notable benchmark in the fast evolution of online video. At the time of the last inauguration, YouTube didn’t even exist.

The major news portals – Yahoo.com, CNN.com, MSNBC.com, AOL News, The New York Times, ABC.com, CBS.com, Fox.com, WashingtonPost.com – all streamed the festivities, some with video embedded right on their home page for the first time. Akamai Technologies Inc., which delivers Internet video for many Web sites, said the inauguration was a record for them, with 7.7 million people watching video streams at the same time.

So much video meant bandwidth was stretched considerably for many sites and many servers. On the whole, the webcasts appeared to function well, albeit with some lags. Keynote Systems Inc., which tracks Web site performance, said the Internet’s top 40 sites slowed down by as much as 60 percent when the ceremony started at 11 a.m., and many news sites saw even sharper declines in performance.

Many sites streaming the festivities gave four different perspectives on the ceremony, giving the viewer the option of watching the primary feed, the crowd amassed along the Mall or other views. The Associated Press’ Online Video Network provided a webcast for many news outlets, including AOL News.

Several outlets looked to combine traditional coverage with new media interactivity.

CNN partnered with Facebook (for users of the social networking site) to include status updates from friends alongside the webcast.

The result was that it (kind of) felt like you were watching along with your friends.

As of 3:30 p.m. EST Tuesday, CNN.com said it served more than 21.3 million live streams globally since 6 a.m. That was nearly four times the amount of live streams on the site on Election Day when there were 5.3 million lives streams.

Mimi Wong, a 28-year-old public defender from Brookline, Mass., watched the CNN.com webcast at work with her colleagues.

“It was pretty cool,” said Wong. “I was actually kind of surprised that the connection was so good.”

Current TV, the user-driven TV network co-founded by Al Gore, likewise combined streaming of the event with Twitter messages or “tweets.” Messages from viewers played at the bottom of both Current’s broadcast and webcast.

Other webcasts were offered by Hulu.com, C-SPAN.org, Joost.com, Ustream.tv (whose feed was available on iPhones, too) and the Presidential Inauguration Committee itself (www.pic2009.org).

But not everyone had a seamless experience watching online. Lyndsey Lewis, a 22-year-old student at the University of Florida, wanted to catch the inauguration online at her school library before heading to class. She checked the webcasts from numerous sites, including CNN and Hulu but was frustrated by the interruptions.

“There were so many pauses that I missed really crucial moments of the inauguration,” said Lewis. “I didn’t expect it to be TV quality, but I definitely thought it would be a lot better than it was.”

Loath to leave behind his BlackBerry, Obama is easily the most tech-savvy president and the country’s first president of the Web 2.0 era. Shortly before taking the oath, he also issued a tweet of his own:

“We just made history. All of this happened because you gave your time, talent and passion. All of this happened because of you.”

The inauguration committee offered official inaugural news updates, transportation notices and invitations by cell phone text messages.

“There’s just a lively discourse on our Web site,” said Linda Douglass, a spokeswoman for the inauguration committee. “It’s very satisfying because our goal here is to make people feel connected to the party and to the events in Washington and to their government.”

Several sites aimed to let people in on the celebrations in Washington.

The Huffington Post hosted a ball Monday night in Washington that included blogging from attendees, live video on the Web site and photos.

Second Life and Wee World also hosted virtual inaugural balls so that even if you were far away from the festivities, your avatar could be partying the night away.

A number of sites offered bells and whistles to their coverage.

The Washington Post provided satellite imagery of the District of Columbia area and culled a user-generated photo mosaic of Obama through submissions on Flickr.com. (The photo site also began to see pictures pour in Tuesday from Washington and elsewhere, documenting the day.)

YouTube partnered with C-SPAN to gather inaugural addresses from presidencies past. One of YouTube’s stars, Obama Girl, streamed her take on the events live on Stickam.com.

MSNBC.com created a video explorer to let users search transcripts of the past 18 inaugural speeches, matching words with the corresponding video. MSNBC.com and CNN.com both touted Microsoft’s “photosynth” technology, a 3-D panorama of the inauguration.

“CBS Evening News” anchor Katie Couric followed the network’s prime-time special with an hourlong webcast on cbsnews.com. A more laid-back Couric reported live from the Commander in Chief Ball and apologized if she seemed “a little cuckoo” after being on the air for so long.

A digital transition was also evident at the official site of the president. At noon EST, WhiteHouse.gov unveiled a new design.

It announced: “Change has come to WhiteHouse.gov.”

WASHINGTON–Rep. Eric I. Cantor urged President-elect Barack Obama Monday to release his full economic stimulus proposal online.

Cantor, R-Va., the Republican Whip, met with Obama as part of a bipartisan meeting with congressional leaders on Capitol Hill.

“I told him, look, families are fearful of a lot of things — job loss, 401(k) collapse… They fear Washington will do things the same old way without accountability and transparency,” Cantor said in an interview.

Cantor said Obama responded positively and said he had “something in the works” to release details of the $800 billion plan.

Cantor called the session a “candid meeting,” and said he generally favors tax cuts expected to be included in the bill. But he said he still wants to see details of Obama’s stimulus plan before supporting it.

“Anytime we are going to give people back more of their hard-earned money, I’m in favor of that,” Cantor said.

While Obama wants Congress to pass the bill by late January or early February, Cantor suggested lawmakers will not rush to pass the measure.

“We are, I believe, willing to work with the president-elect and Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi so we get it right, so we are not wasting taxpayer dollars,” he said.

Cantor said he hoped Democrats would avoid loading a stimulus bill with “age old wasteful, pork barrel spending.”

Republicans and Democrats aren’t just split on the issues, they go about finding online video in different ways. Democrats use traditional news sites and social networking sites to discover video, while Republicans generally rely on search engines to find video. However, both parties were almost equal in their use of YouTube.

According to an article from BusinessWeek, the Web is engaging voters like never before.

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