Incredibly, this is the seventh year of the D: All Things Digital conference.

We feel very lucky to get here, especially in the midst of what our own site’s Digital Daily scribe, John Paczkowski, has so perfectly dubbed the “econalypse.”

Ironically, Walt Mossberg and I planned to launch the very first conference in the middle of the last major downturn for tech, in 2001. But, in the carnage of the Web 1.0 meltdown, we actually held off for two years, with our first D gathering taking place in 2003.

It’s been a real winning streak since then for D, due in large part to our great speakers–such as Microsoft (MSFT) icon Bill Gates and Apple (AAPL) legend Steve Jobs.

Both have been onstage many times over the years, including a historic interview the pair of tech titans did together in 2007 at D5.

Other amazing speakers have included: Howard Stringer of Sony (SNE), Barry Diller of InterActiveCorp (IACI), legendary director George Lucas, Time Warner (TWX) CEO Jeff Bewkes, Jeff Bezos of Amazon (AMZN), former eBay (EBAY) CEO Meg Whitman, News Corp. (NWS) head Rupert Murdoch, Microsoft head Steve Ballmer, Walt Disney (DIS) honcho Bob Iger, Bobby Kotick of Activision Blizzard (ATVI), CBS (CBS) CEO Les Moonves, Democratic and Republican pols like former Vice President Al Gore and Sen. John McCain, all the leadership of Google (GOOG) and many, many more.

We have had a lot of great moments onstage with all these tech and media players over the years, to be sure, with interviews ranging from the funny to the sublime to the truly disastrous.

But, like the digital industry and the innovation our conference focuses on, we also like to lean forward to try to figure out what the Next Big Thing is around the corner, whether it comes from Silicon Valley or not.

That’s why we’re kicking off our conference on May 26 with two of the founders of Twitter–Biz Stone and Evan Williams–who are riding high on tech’s latest hot thing, which might turn out to be either a rocket ship or a shooting star.

They’ll be followed up over the next two days by a plethora of interesting players, from the leaders of several major mobile companies to content execs hit hard by fast-moving digital forces to a new Internet leader like Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz, who is trying to turn around one of the Web’s great icons from its more recent lackluster path.

And, as we always do, we will be featuring a spate of demos too, trying to see if we can unearth that next next thing.

In the past, the D stage has seen the debut of start-up products like Sling Media’s Slingbox, Aliph’s Jawbone and Pure Digital’s Flip, all of which have gone onto glory. And also some, like Palm’s Foleo, which did not.

While not everyone can attend D, our crack staff is committed to bringing all the action from this year’s conference to readers of the All Things Digital site via up-to-the-minute blogs, photos, videos, tweets, digs and more. We’ll also, as soon as we can, post the videos of each of the onstage sessions, in their entirety.

Until it all kicks off, here is the list of speakers, below, in alphabetical order, who will be appearing at 2009’s D7 conference:

Irving Azoff | CEO of Ticketmaster Entertainment (TKTM)

Mitchell Baker | Chairman of Mozilla

Steve Ballmer | CEO of Microsoft

Carol Bartz | CEO of Yahoo

Mark Cuban | Chairman of HDNet and Owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Landmark Theaters and Magnolia Pictures

Eve Ensler | Playwright and Founder of V-Day

Arianna Huffington | Editor-in-Chief of the Huffington Post

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo | CEO of Nokia (NOK)

Mike Lazaridis | Co-CEO of Research In Motion (RIMM)

John Lilly | CEO of Mozilla

John Malone | Chairman of Liberty Media Corporation (LCAPA)

Roger McNamee | Partner, Elevation Partners

Jon Miller | Chief Digital Officer of News Corp.

Jon Rubinstein | Executive Chairman, Palm (PALM)

Randall Stephenson | CEO of AT&T (T)

Biz Stone | Co-founder of Twitter

Owen Van Natta | CEO of MySpace

Katharine Weymouth | Publisher of the Washington Post (WPO)

Evan Williams | Co-founder and CEO of Twitter

Jeff Zucker | CEO of NBC Universal (GE)

Is it just me or does the fact that President-Elect Barack Obama is broadcasting his weekly address on YouTube not seem like it should be the very biggest deal in the world?

Still, when an article in the Washington Post reported late last week that he would put his weekly Democratic address online in video–on YouTube and his own transition site, Change.gov–as well as the regular radio, the squeals from tech were louder than at a mall appearance by the Zac Efron of “High School Musical.”

While it is a first for the Commander-in-Chief, I am more depressed that it is a first–after all, skateboarding cats made it to YouTube eons ago–than utterly thrilled that he is doing it.

But, when it come to the glacial movement related to politicians and tech issues, disappointment seems to be a better stance than hope.

I could begin with the fact that the U.S. has poor broadband and wireless coverage compared with most comparable nations (Softbank’s Masa Son once told me in an interview that this country was the “third world of broadband”).

Ironically, the price of high-speed access ranks at the top, by really gross margins.

Or that the federal government remains unfocused on a number of important digital issues, from immigration to privacy to net neutrality.

Perhaps because of his more obvious use of Internet tools, from communicating to supporters to raising money to targeting voters, Obama has felt like the first true Internet candidate, well beyond the ultimately unsuccessful inroads made by Howard Dean in 2004.

And now with even more YouTube videos, the Twitters, a much more interactive Web site at Change.gov and, best of all, the possible appointment of a CTO for America, it has been a general lovefest that the Obama presidency has engendered from the Internet community, simply for the focus the sector is now getting.

And more interactive communications are promised, such as regular video interviews with senior members of the Obama administration.

“This is just one of many ways that he will communicate directly with the American people and make the White House and the political process more transparent,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki said to the Washington Post.

It’s not that BoomTown does not think this is a great thing, but to me, this kind of transparent communication should be as normal as it has become throughout the rest of society as a matter of course.

Also, it would be nice if the Obama videos were also distributed on many other video services besides YouTube, which is the largest, but owned by Google (GOOG), whose CEO Eric Schmidt is a prominent supporter of the new administration.

Still, the four-minute video that Obama released yesterday is a good first step, along with a previous one from transition Co-Chairman Valerie Jarrett, who recorded a two-minute video earlier in the week.

Both are below:

President-Elect Barack Obama

Transition Co-Chairman Valerie Jarrett

In advance of tomorrow’s elections, here’s a pair of videos of the two presidential candidates, Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, talking about tech.

While Obama has many more supporters in the tech and Internet sectors in terms of numbers, including Google (GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt, McCain’s include Cisco (CSCO) CEO John Chambers, former eBay (EBAY) CEO Meg Whitman and former Hewlett-Packard (HP) head Carly Fiorina.

And while tech is not exactly issue No. 1 with either of them, here is McCain talking about it in the entire interview he did at the fifth D: All Things Digital conference in 2007 (he also discusses Iraq and other topics in the interview) and a new, much shorter three-minute video just posted by Obama on tech policy:

As BoomTown has noted, one of the best things to come out of this election has been the very funny and very topical humor that has been on "Saturday Night Live" in this political cycle.

Headlined by Tina Fey's perfect impression of Republican VP candidate and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the offerings from the comedy television show has been biting without stooping to the rank meanness from so many other places by both sides.

Last night, Republican Presidential candidate John McCain--who has been on SNL before (his "John McCain Sings Barbra Streisand" skit was really a gem from that appearance)--was in two skits on the show and did a great job in both.

The first was a really clever opening sketch in which he and Fey as Palin appeared on the QVC cable shopping network, sheepishly explaining that they could not afford to buy time on the major networks as Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama did last week.

Money quote from McCain: "I'm a true maverick, a Republican without money."

Along with a set of "John McCain Pork Knives" and "McCain Fine Gold" (with Cindy McCain as the comely demoer), Fey (as Palin) goes rogue and starts selling "Palin in 2012" T-shirts.

In a second appearance on "Weekend Update," McCain did another nice turn, running through a series of new strategies to win, such as "The Sad Grandpa" and the "The Reverse Maverick."

Here are the videos:

Opening QVC Sketch

Weekend Update

Here’s an interesting video from The Vote Hour, which is trying to get CEOs to let employees take off an hour from work to vote in the upcoming elections.

But while the group is independent and bipartisan, it is also an effort that started at Google (GOOG).

From the About Us section of the Vote Hour site:

The Vote Hour sprung (as many things do at Google) from some very interesting research. After reading a report from the U.S. Census Bureau, a Googler noticed that in the 2004 Presidential election, the NUMBER ONE reason that registered voters didn’t make it out to the polls to vote was because they were ‘too busy’ or had conflicting work schedules.

So this person asked himself, ‘What if bosses around the country encouraged their employees to take an hour off to go vote? Would employees feel relaxed enough, even in this down economy, to leave work behind and go vote?’

It seemed logical that if nothing else, getting ‘permission’ from your boss to take an hour off would take one more excuse off the table. So this Googler sent an email to Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google Inc., who volunteered to record a message of support and encouraged some fellow CEOs to join him … and The Vote Hour was born.”

Schmidt, who recently went on the trail for Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, is the first CEO featured in the video, along with a panoply of well-known execs, including a lot from tech (including eBay, Cisco, Symantec and Intel).

Also roped in, apparently for comic relief, is real estate mogul Donald Trump.

He is, as usual, quite funny in ordering his employees to take off “only one hour.”

Here’s the video:

(And here is a post about the effort on Google’s blog, posted by Andy Berndt, Managing Director of Google Creative Lab, and Katie Jacobs Stanton of its Elections team.)

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

At least, according to this excerpt from a 10-questions interview former Wonkette blogger Ana Marie Cox, who now contributes to Time magazine’s Swampland blog, did with Stop Smiling magazine recently.

Cox (pictured here) was on a blogger panel at our third D: All Things Digital conference in 2005, where she talked about the changes in the media industry due to the rise of blogs.

At the time, there was a lot of controversy about the rise of bloggers.

But now, in questions No. 7 and 8 here, Cox discusses the huge differences in the 2004 and 2008 presidential campaigns, in terms of blogs, and how the image of bloggers has shifted dramatically with mainstream media.

From Cox’s lips to traditional journalists’ ears.

Here are the excerpts:

Q7: You’ve been around long enough to see the differences between the 2004 and 2008 presidential campaigns. Do you have any strong feelings about how this year differs from the Kerry-Bush election, in terms of the role that blogs play?

AMC: In 2004, MTV hired me to cover the Democratic convention, and I swear I did two or three interviews just on the fact that I was a blogger covering the convention. I doubt that would happen today. In 2004, people would be highly suspicious of me, because at any moment I could break out my computer and blog about them. I went to YearlyKos in 2006, as one of my first assignments for Time, and I was hanging out with the real reporters, and there was this running joke: As soon as someone said something off-color or impolitic, you’d say, “Hey, I’m gonna blog that.” Like a taunt. In 2008, I was at a Republican debate during the primaries, and I looked around the filing center and everyone was blogging. Everyone has that force propelling them to publish whatever they can. Anything that happens to them is now fodder for a Washington Post blog.

Q8: Do you think more traditional reporters still frown on blogging as if it were not a serious form of journalism?

AMC: The whole “are bloggers journalists?” question, which was always stupid, is finally fading, especially thanks to people like Josh Marshall [of Talking Points Memo], who have shown you don’t have to have a big organization behind you to be a journalist. The defining characteristic of a journalist is what you produce. I think it’s changed the question from “are bloggers journalists?” to “what is journalism?” And that is a perfectly acceptable debate to have. There’s never going to be an answer, but it starts us at a better place than simply talking about delivery systems.”

Ana

You have to admire the sledgehammer stylings of Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who loves to accuse Microsoft (justifiably, I might add) of bullying lobbying tactics in our nation’s capital, in the latest moves in the regulatory fight over the controversial search advertising outsourcing partnership that Yahoo and Google have struck.

Today, just days before the Justice Department will decide whether to move ahead with a lawsuit to stop the Yahoogle deal from proceeding or let it move forward with some other remedy or tweaking, Schmidt announced that he would be campaigning for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama in the last two weeks of the election.

Schmidt said in an interview that it was a personal endorsement and not from the company, even though many of its top execs are longtime supporters of Obama.

“I’m doing this personally,” he said. “Google is officially neutral.”

Well maybe so, and Schmidt has long been politically active himself.

But I cannot help but be struck by the perfect timing of the announcement, right as government officials under the Bush administration must make a move before the election makes them unable to do so.

(Then again, if Schmidt had endorsed Obama after any move by the government, it probably would have looked worse.)

In any case, it now makes any action by Washington policymakers even more complex.

To begin, Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Thomas Barnett (pictured here), who will be leaving that post after the November election, has not been much of a trustbuster, to say the least, taking a mostly hands-off attitude toward business regulation.

But, in taking a long look at the deal in the first place, a partnership that does not actually need Justice Department approval to move forward, and hiring an outside counsel too, Barnett has also put himself out on a limb.

Thus, he is likely not to pat Yahoo (YHOO) and Google (GOOG) on the back and wish them good luck in their exciting endeavor.

That’s especially true given that a wide range of advertisers has expressed worries about the deal, which they say will lift online search ad prices and create a dangerous duopoly, along with public interest groups that have called the deal dangerous. Plus, there are also the many other special interest groups, all jacked up by Microsoft’s lobbying.

(It still surprises me up that some reports find it shocking that Microsoft is being aggressive here–helloooooo–Google would do exactly the same if the tables were turned.)

Google and Yahoo are arguing that the deal is nonexclusive, does not violate antitrust laws and that prices will not rise since they are determined by auction.

Still, sources close to all parties–Yahoo, Google and Microsoft (MSFT)–said the decision from government regulators, expected as early as this Wednesday, could still go a number of ways.

Under one scenario, the government could file a lawsuit and ask for an injunction to stop the deal from starting at all.

This move would be the most drastic of all. And, more to the point, it is hardest to prove, because there is no actual damage yet to point to as a result of the deal, even if the pair do control upward of 80 percent of the search market.

Under a second, the Justice Department could file a lawsuit opposing the deal, but not ask that it be stopped.

That means that the Yahoo and Google deal could go forward with implementation, even with the suit hanging over its head. It is a move that would provide a lot of data to determine the true impact of the No. 1 and No. 2 search players being in business together.

Under a third scenario, regulators could give Google and Yahoo tacit approval for the deal, with certain new rules about caps or monitoring that are agreed to in advance.

This option is the most complicated, since it is hard to determine what is dangerous and what is not in the fast-moving world of search. Will the Justice Department have a monitor sitting cluelessly next to Yahoo and Google engineers as they fiddle with the algorithm?

Still some sort of new rules to the deal are expected, if Justice takes a pass on a lawsuit.

“They are not going to hold a parade for us, and it is obvious they are interested in putting appropriate guardrails in place,” said one source close to Yahoo and Google. “But they might just say, ‘Go ahead, but we are watching you very carefully.’”

Under a fourth scenario, which Google is pushing for strongly, the Justice Department could simply pass on taking any action at all.

In that case, which seems unlikely, it is not without possibility that some advertisers or even Microsoft could go to court to seek their own injunctions, although that would be extreme.

Microsoft could also ask, given that the Yahoogle deal is nonexclusive, to make a similar deal with Yahoo. If it is rejected, the software giant could use that as proof that it is not.

But what is perhaps most interesting is that Yahoo and Google have not completely agreed as to how to handle this difficult process.

Yahoo, which has only recently become more active in lobbying for the deal, has been more willing to allow the government to set parameters in order to get regulatory blessing.

The company has also been quietly telling advertisers worried about it there are moves to come–Yahoo execs are obviously referring to a possible merger deal with Time Warner over its AOL unit–that mean that advertisers should be less scared of Yahoo becoming a satellite of Google.

Google, as is typical for it, has been more aggressive in its stance, holding out for less–if any–tweaking of the original Yahoogle deal.

Even its partner Yahoo thinks the powerful Internet giant has had a tin ear in this regard so far, with Yahoo execs cringing when Schmidt was widely quoted as saying that the deal would move forward with or without Justice Department approval.

The statement by Schmidt, in which he also added, “time is money in our business,” made him seem a bit arrogant about the role policymakers have.

Obviously, Schmidt misspoke, which all neophyte politicians tend to do now and again.

Today, he was much more circumspect, although he still managed to get a dig–or was it a warning?–in.

“My sense is, the Justice Department makes judgments on these issues independent of politics,” Schmidt said, priming the pump perfectly. “It would be unfair to Justice to imply [that supporting Sen. Obama] would make a difference.”

Yes, that would be completely unfair.

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Apparently not, from this aggressively pro-Sen. Barack Obama video that has become a huge hit on the Web and seen by many millions of viewers.

It’s called “The Great Schlep,” which is also a political advocacy organization she supports.

In it, the viciously funny Silverman plans to blame–I am not kidding–old Jewish grandparents if Democratic nominee Obama loses the Presidential election. And she advises a very clever kind of blackmail as a way to prevent it.

You have to experience her logic to understand–and please be aware that Silverman pulls no punches.

And, if Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin goes on “Saturday Night Live”–as is rumored–to impersonate Tina Fey, BoomTown will get it right up.

Here’s the video (and below it, the other huge hit online spoof video Silverman did about her–um–friendly relationship with actor Matt Damon):

The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

BoomTown admits herewith that I am officially a teenage boy, given how much I really like Atom’s Kung-Fu Election site, an online fighting game for the general election.

In advance of tonight’s much-anticipated debate between the vice-presidential candidates–Democratic Sen. Joe Biden and Republican Gov. Sarah Palin–here’s a video of them duking it out digitally in hiiii-ya style.

Of course, Palin gets the Xena-Warrior-Princess look with a hockey stick and gun as weapons, while the sharp-tongued Biden gets a big sword and is dressed like some refugee from “Shogun.”

Let’s hope the verbal sparring to come is as gripping.

Here’s the video:

Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | More Video Clips

Sen. Barack Obama clinched the Democratic presidential nomination this week, so we’d be remiss if we did not revisit some of the many videos online that have popped up around the charismatic candidate that this column has referenced.

Tomorrow: McCain videos! Really!

First, the interview Walt Mossberg and I did last week at the sixth D: All Things Digital conference with News Corp. head Rupert Murdoch, in which he–in an unexpected move–appeared to be warming to Obama:

An Obama Girl attack on Sen. Hillary Clinton that I did not care for very much:

The super-cool Obama-”West Wing” mashup, which is totally coming true:

The very funny “Saturday Night Live” Obamapology:

And, of course, the mother of them all–the original Obama Girl video. Apparently, she has a crush on Obama:

In this one just released, former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel–who made a run at the Democratic presidential nomination and is now trying to be the Libertarian Party candidate and who is not, let us be honest, Obamalicious–sings with the now-famous Obama Girl.

Now when I say sings, I am using the term rather loosely, as you will see in the video.

Still, there is a game of Twister, some pie and an attempt at rap and dancing that would be painful if it were not so cute.

Also, my favorite, Gravel says at the end as Obama Girl walks away: “If you have second thoughts, I’m on Twitter!”

Well, someone outside of Silicon Valley has to be.

Here’s the video:

So, as is BoomTown’s patriotic duty, I was watching the returns come in from Pennsylvania in the draggy war that has become the quest for the Democratic presidential candidate nomination between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, as I also pondered what would happen next in the even draggier Microsoft (MSFT)-Yahoo (YHOO) takeover battle.

Then a smart friend in the industry wrote me an email, stating the obvious:

This msft/yahoo deal reminds me of the democratic nomination. we all know how it’s going to end but it’s going to be nasty nasty nasty all the way till the end, with enough bitterness generated along the way to present a reasonably likelihood of a pyrrhic victory. the ultimate loser can only succeed in doing well enough to drag out the process and inflict more pain.”

My friend wins the pundit prize.

And, in other words, the only winners in both these ugly contests are obvious: Republican candidate Sen. John McCain and Google (GOOG).

Which are, ironically, the pair both other pairs should actually be most focused on defeating.