“the object of fascination was not Obama, nor his words, nor the exact moment of his inauguration, but rather the millions watching him, and what they said and did throughout all of Inauguration Day.

These observers were participating in a project called Januarythe20th, a modern-day update of the 1930s Mass Observation movement, which enlisted England’s working- and middle-class people to observe and document, as objectively as possible, the happenings of the world around them.

Ultimately, Januarythe20th received submissions from more than 100 observers, some embedded within the Mall’s massive throng, others filing from far-flung locations like Argentina, New Zealand, U.S. Army Camp Speicher (outside Tikrit, Iraq), and Kisumu, a port city on Lake Victoria in western Kenya’

the object of fascination was not Obama, nor his words, nor the exact moment of his inauguration, but rather the millions watching him, and what they said and did throughout all of Inauguration Day.

These observers were participating in a project called Januarythe20th, a modern-day update of the 1930s Mass Observation movement, which enlisted England’s working- and middle-class people to observe and document, as objectively as possible, the happenings of the world around them.

Ultimately, Januarythe20th received submissions from more than 100 observers, some embedded within the Mall’s massive throng, others filing from far-flung locations like Argentina, New Zealand, U.S. Army Camp Speicher (outside Tikrit, Iraq), and Kisumu, a port city on Lake Victoria in western Kenya