Yesterday one of my friends sent me a link from Google Reader. The story: “Help NPR Plan Our Social Media Activities for the Inauguration.” Read on to find out how you can help - or just be part of a colosso, Y2-Obama-K, power failure that will trash DC’s cell phone towers on Inauguration weekend.

Now, NPR - and Andy Carvin, Senior Product Manager in the Digital Media department, are on to something different. To add on to what they did for the Election (VoteReport), they have two techies building iPhone Applications for the Inauguration — so that people can post audio, text (and maybe even video?) online. I will definitley take part and text updates from @ericaamerica to NPR. If you are a DC Local, use the tag #inaug09. If you are coming from somewhere else, use the tag #dctrip09.

With all the early reports of cell phone towers being stretched with an estimated 2 million out-of-town visitors, it is safe to assume this project, though smart and ambitious, will have problems. But how do you cover such an event through social media — when technology and towers will be so seriously challenged?

If the towers fail us all - which would be tragic considered how connected we are - watch out for me on my little red rider, biking back and forth to my media station in Dupont to upload, tag and blog. Then, I’ll be back again on the streets. It’ll be like a little post-Street Team reporting marathon. :)

**If you are an iPhone App guru, or have any other ideas for NPR’s social media coverage, contact Andy via Twitter. (@acarvin)

I was at lunch today with an old Washingtonian. She is someone who had a big impact on politics in the ’80s and well into the ’90s, as a female pioneer and a staffer in the Senate. I have no doubt from her stories that she totally kicked ass…which I totally, completely respect.

But today, I mentioned a way the new generation was kicking ass. And her look was of total disgust — which I took as a complete compliment.

In the days after the election, new media leaders like Jim Gilliam of Brave New Films, have created Web portals for voters to continue their civic engagement. Sites like Change.Org and WhiteHouse2.Org are modern social voting tools - that allow interested users to rank the policy issues that matter most. With that, some raise to the top, others fall, and eventually will disclose a microcosm of what voters want.

These two sites act almost like social bookmarking sites such as DIGG and Technorati. While it may sound crazy… there are some real players creating and partnering in these initiatives.  Will social networking change the world? Who knows. But as Howard Dean said,

“The Internet is the most important tool for redemocratizing the world since Gutenberg invented the printing press.”

Who knows how far this will go - for good and for bad. We will have to wait and see how far the Millennials, with the help of Obama and his leadership, take it. But from my perspective, the future couldn’t look brighter.