There's only one story in the world today – or, as The Guardian's Charles Arthur tweeted: "It's a good day to bury bad news."

Given his progressive and net-neutral stance on technology,
it's no surprise that President-elect Barack Obama is much admired by
the digerati. He delivered his technology agenda around this time last
year at a Google Talks
event, followed by a Q&A with Eric Schmidt (worth watching just for
his answer to a question about search algorithms) and in the run up to
the elections, Tim O'Reilly was one of the many to endorse him.

Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins at Mashable has pulled together an impressive overview of how the Obama campaign has used social media to achieve the desired result.

Meanwhile, Forrester Research's Jeremiah Owyang gives voice
to the issue top of tech mind in the wake of Obama's landslide victory:
"Now that the dust has settled between the candidates, we should keep
an eye on the President’s promises he made to the technology community.
Never before have we seen a president give this much focus on
Technology (let alone use new technology in addition to old for his
campaigns) and it’s important we remember what he has planned and
promised."

Blogs force businesses to be better communicators
One
of the tech-driven changes expected under an Obama administration is
increased transparency in government, with federal spending and
legislation being thrown open to public scrutiny and participation.
It's going to require a massive culture change for everyone involved, especially those unused to such openness even in internal
communications. But it's clear that this is the direction in which the
winds of change are blowing, and it's not just the tech sector that
knows it.

Elon Musk, CEO of electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors blogged about the company's October 15 layoffs even before some of the affected staff had been informed. As the New York Times reports, Musk felt he had no choice if he wanted to prevent inaccurate reporting.

The NYT story carries comment and reaction from industry sources which
all serve to underline what those in the social media know have seen
coming from a mile off: blogging is gaining rapid ground as a more
immediate, more sincere and more effective way of communicating with
staff and the outside world. The best quote comes from Andy Sernovitz,
chief executive of the Blog Council: "There are hold-out companies that still wish there was traditional P.R. control of the message, but that day is long over."

Conserving street art through mashups
Banksy
is undoubtedly a UK counterculture national treasure, much as the
officious public servants of Westminster fain to deny it. Last month,
they ordered a piece of Banksy street art near London's Oxford Street be removed on the grounds that it is vandalism.

While the wheels of local authority slowly spin into action, tech/PR
blogger and appreciator of street art (did I mention he's also MD of Rainier PR ?) Stephen Waddington today highlights the work of Art of the state, which has produced an online collection of Banksy art and a Google Map of the top 10 Banksy locations across London. Wadds recommends: "The
best examples of Banksy work in London are in an old tunnel off Leake
Street within the shadow of Waterloo and the London Eye. Banksy brought
together 39 artists together in May for The Cans Festival to create work in the tunnel."

–Basheera Khan