Soon we will have Internet video cameras in our pockets

Video is now a common Internet data type and mobile Internet access devices are becoming available. You can see the convergence of these trends in this video of a test drive of a Tesla electric car:



The audio and video quality is poor, but it was shot using a Nokia N95 cell phone camera and streamed on the Internet as it was being recorded.

(The video is worth watching in its own right -- Tesla's founder discusses their technology and plans for the future while taking a joy ride).

We saw the Apple iPhone this year, and large phone vendors are now demonstrating their own mobile Internet access devices. Soon portable video cameras will be ubiquitous.

Ubiquitous, Internet-connected video cameras will be used for many business and personal applications. Will they also affect politics and government? Would it have mattered if the students at Tienanmen Square or the recent Tibetan demonstrators had been online? How many athletes and spectators will be online in China during the upcoming Olympic Games? How many people will be online in Iraq next year?