The People’s Inaugural Address concluded last week – it was a huge success!  When all was said and done, over 400 people had contributed (not including the 43 presidents).  You can find a copy-edited version of the final collective address here and the site where it was created here.

The project earned quite a bit of attention from the media and blogosphere.  One person, taking advantage of the fact that the inaugural addresses were published under a creative commons license, even created a free e-book from all the different submissions.  See our recent buzz for more highlights.

One last thing to bring to your attention – here’s Slate’s Michael Newman being interviewed on the WNYC’s Brian Lehrer show about the project.

He does a pretty nice job of explaining how MixedInk’s process works.  We also thought this “word cloud” that WNYC created using from the People’s Inaugural Address was pretty cool:

All in all, this was a pretty innovative project, and a great way to kick off the grand adventure that is MixedInk.

A big thanks to Slate – and to all who contributed!

See for yourself: www.mixedink.com

‘Nuff said!

Update: We’ve just been written up at TechCrunch!   (As a bonus, our site seems to be humming along despite the additional traffic…we’ve heard horror stories).

MixedInk is thrilled to be working with Slate Magazine, which is inviting its readers to collaborate on their own inaugural address.

Join the fun!

www.mixedink.com/slate/inauguraladdress

Here’s the press release:

WASHINGTON – (Business Wire) Slate, the daily online magazine, today launched “The People’s Inaugural Address”, a collaborative, interactive feature that lets users compose, edit and vote for the speech they would want President-Elect Barack Obama to give at his inauguration. Guided by a database of inaugural addresses from past presidents, users will be able to select favorite phrases from previous inaugural speeches and use their own words to create an ideal address.

Powered by cutting-edge technology from MixedInk, “The People’s Inaugural Address” is more than a wiki since it allows anyone to write, remix and rate speeches while synthesizing a variety of opinions to determine the most popular. Slate will feature the top-rated speeches, and visitors can search for other user-generated speeches by author or phrases.

“Combining words from every inaugural address from George Washington to George W. Bush plus ideas and input from the everyday American allows us to create something defined by the country,” said David Plotz, Slate’s Editor. “Slate has always used the Internet to get people to interact in unique ways. We are excited that The People’s Inaugural Address lets anyone participate in speechwriting while commemorating this historic moment.”

Users can create, edit, remix and rate inaugural addresses now through January 16, when Slate will highlight the top-rated speeches and ask users to cast final votes for their favorite ones. On January 19, Slate will publish the top-rated address that is truly of, by, and for the people.

To visit the feature, go to www.slate.com.

About Slate Magazine (www.slate.com)

Slate is a daily online magazine that offers fresh angles on stories in the news and innovative entertainment coverage, all with its signature wit and irreverence. Pushing the boundaries of convention, Slate publishes provocative commentary on topics such as politics, culture, business and technology. Slate reaches 6.7 million online adults a month according to Nielsen and is published by The Slate Group, an online publishing subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE:WPO).

About MixedInk (mixedink.com)

MixedInk is an Internet startup that has developed innovative, online software for democratic, collaborative writing. The platform enables large groups of people to speak with a collective voice by weaving their language, ideas and opinions into a single text. MixedInk’s site was used by a group of online activists in summer 2008 to create a political platform, a piece of which was subsequently included in the official Democratic Party platform. The company will launch its free public service in January 2009.

Slate Magazine
Jennifer Lee
703-469-2671
jennifer.lee@wpni.com

When holiday travel forces you to sacrifice Internet access for hours, or even days…make a demo video!  That’s what we did.

Check it out:

Let us know what you think!

On behalf of Team MixedInk, a very sincere thanks to my wife Sarah for lending her fabulous voice to the cause.