Streaming Obama

With the assistance of Microsoft's Silverlight software, some of the world will be watching today's inauguration of Barack Obama in a live internet stream from the the inauguration Web site, starting at 8 a.m. our time. Silverlight was also used by the Democratic National Committee to stream the Demo convention and Obama's acceptance speech.

The Redmond Softies clearly want to be in on the historic election - corporately and individually. Following up hefty campaign donations, the Gates and Balmer families have contributed $200,000 to the inaugural's costs, along with $50,000 from Microsoft exec Steve Van Roekel. Other local contributors who each gave the $50,000 max - worth four inaugural tickets - are glass artist Dale Chihuly, Real Network's Rob Glaser, and John Vechey of PopCap Games.