Bob Iger, CEO of the Walt Disney Company (DIS), was the kickoff interview onstage at Fortune magazine’s Brainstorm Tech conference, which is taking place over the next three days in Pasadena, Calif.

The event is packed full of Web and media luminaries.

So, BoomTown will be sitting in the front row and liveblogging some of the sessions here, including this one, titled, “Digital Kingdom: New Business Models for a Media Giant.”

Translation: When you Twitter upon a star, makes a–big–difference what you earn.

Which, right now, is not a whole lot, as Iger and others in the media business know all too well.

But let’s set the scene: Iger looks like a very typical old-media mogul you might order from an online catalog–handsome, suave and sophisticated, a perfect mix of Hollywood and New York.

Thank goodness, then, that he never seems to have acquired that other irksome characteristic of some of his peers–a full-bored panic over the Internet.

In fact, Iger–whom I also interviewed onstage at the fourth D: All Things Digital conference in 2006–has been unusually fast-forward among many of the big media companies in facing the digital music and dancing.

Fortune writer Richard Siklos asked him about a mishmash of subjects, from subscription services to authentication to cable providers, all of which center around a basic question:

How the heck is Disney going to be paid for its wares–because someday those agelessly lucrative “kids” from “High School Musical” are not going to agree to yet another reunion?

“This is the beginning of the beginning,” said Iger, who noted that it would be folly to guess what’s coming next in the digital arena.

A most excellent point that he made several times, adding that it was important for companies like Disney to keep trying out all sorts of things digitally, until they got it right.

“This notion of protecting the present is something that I talk a lot about [with employees],” said Iger, who wants them not to do that so much.

He noted that running a modern media company meant you had to have “one hand in the present and one hand in the future.”

Iger forgot about the hand that you might need to protect yourself from partners of the present–like big-box retailers, television affiliates, cable networks–who are going to come at you with a cudgel for giving the stuff you sell them away free on, say, Hulu.

Hulu, of course, is the popular, tiny-money-making premium online video service, which is a joint partnership of News Corp. (NWS), GE’s (GE) NBC Universal and now Disney.

“We believe in Hulu,” said Iger, who thinks its business model–currently just online advertising–might evolve over time.

But, he added, he was “somewhat skeptical” of any one answer to what is ahead.

As in: Iger just does not know, which is probably the best thing a media mogul can say right now.

Except for one thing he said is always mindful of–to follow, “where the consumer is going.”

Consumers are going online, of course, which is certainly going to require all-hands-on-deck at Disney in the years ahead.

[Update: It seems Disney was keeping its hand in the present for today, as it apparently had YouTube take down a trailer for its new "Alice in Wonderland" movie, which was set to debut at Comic-Con International in San Diego tomorrow.]

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

First off, as Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski pointed out to me today, you have to give Yahoo props for using Gogol Bordello as the soundtrack and–more to the point–actually knowing about Gogol Bordello in the first place.

“Since when does [Yahoo CEO Jerry] Yang listen to gypsy punk?” asked Paczkowski in an email to me today.

Since Bill Gates started eating churros with Jerry Seinfeld and adjusting his skivvies hands-free, that’s when!

Oh dear, Yahoo (YHOO) has succumbed to the hipster, ironic thing–an unfortunate marketing virus that has hit Microsoft (MSFT) of late too–in an under-the-covers “Start Wearing Purple” online marketing campaign.

The Internet company is now out with a Web site touting itself, advocating that people “celebrate purple.”

Purple and yellow have always been Yahoo’s colors–even while Google (GOOG) just up-and-grabbed the whole spectrum and emerged victorious.

Nonetheless, Yahoo is going to town on the purple idea, using a lot of its tools and products in the process to show itself off.

The effort starts with a video of multiracial hipsters doing wacky stuff, including a yodeling Yang (see at top), which makes it look like a very alternative version of “High School Musical.”

Also on the site: See purple-inspired photos from Flickr; view videos of “Purple Pranks” (first up, of course, ringers singing the purple song in an elevator to unsuspecting folks); peruse profiles of “Purple Picks” (like the cool crafts site Etsy and artist Clarence Lee) and “Purple Pioneers” (a mix of do-gooders and more hipsters, so far); and even search the word “purple” on Yahoo to fun-filled results.

There’s also a bunch of purple bikes apparently traveling the globe and taking pictures that will be uploaded to a Flickr map. And, natch, you can buy purple clothes.

After trolling the site for a bit, I can tell you I live in the dead center of San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood and we don’t get that purple here ever!

In other words, it’s all very high-concept, much like the dancing guy video that Yahoo did recently (see that very sweet morale-building video at the very bottom).

But to really resonate with the mass of users Yahoo needs to hold onto, as dull as this sounds, I would just like a simple explanation of why I should use Yahoo in my daily life.

The legendary Apple (AAPL) Mac-PC ads that Yahoo and Microsoft are clearly trying to mimic are good primarily because they have a message in each funny exchange about why you need to own a Mac.

Not so much with this quirky Yahoo effort, which is laudable, but a waste of time.

In the main “celebrate purple” video on the site, part of the tag line is: “Deep inside everyone is a Yahoo! waiting to come out. Set yourself free with a little purple.”

Actually, deep inside Yahoo is a Yahoo waiting to come out. And it is going to take more than purple to coax that magical creature out into the light again.

BoomTown is back from a seasick cruise vacation in the wilds of Alaska–official sightings: lots of icebergs, 16 glaciers, a passel of jellyfish and starfish, four lumberjacks, three orcas, two seals, one otter, no moose or bears and, yep, one Republican Vice Presidential candidate’s lovely house in Juneau–just in time for school.

Or, more precisely, a little schooling for some of the tech companies that I cover in a mildly obsessive-compulsive manner.

All of them, I predict, are in for a news-filled fall.

That’s right, more Facebook employee hijinks! More BMOC-battling between Microsoft and Google! More Yahoo trying its hardest not to look like so much of a loser (Keep trying, Jerry–release your inner head cheerleader!).

Thus, here is a rundown of what to expect and also what some of those companies need to focus on over the next several months.

YAHOO: Simply put, time is running out for the languid stylings of Yahoo (YHOO) management, whom I hope have been ferreting away since the controversial annual meeting at the start of August on a plan to jack up revenues and profitability and pronto.

Unfortunately, many employees I have talked to recently still report a disturbing lack of urgency on the part of the company, whose stock has sat too close to $19 a share for too long now.

But, as many have previously observed, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang has only a few months to prove he can light a fire under the company and be the leader he has so often promised he can be.

Job one: Cuts, cuts and more cuts is my guess to get Yahoo more focused on its core businesses–content aggregation and display advertising.

After that, it’s wishin’ and hopin’ the outsourcing online ad search deal with Google starts in October as expected and actually yields significant results.

If it does not, it’s bottoms up for the current regime.

MICROSOFT: Is it too much to ask that one of the most powerful tech companies on the planet, with tens of billions of dollars at its disposal at any one time, with enough innate aggressiveness to scare a hungry bear away, and with a legion of techies the size of the a small army, to settle on a truly successful Internet strategy after–oh, let’s count–more than a decade?

But, hey, I’m just asking.

Microsoft (MSFT) must, first of all, pick a digital chief, which it promised to do after the departure of longtime exec Kevin Johnson.

That was almost six weeks ago, but what with summer vacations, moving with due speed must be tough. (BoomTown’s bet is that Microsoft execs Brian McAndrews or Yusuf Mehdi are most likely to get the nod, as outsiders have had a harder time fitting in.)

Then the company has to decide its overall strategy to make big moves in the online ad and search space, where Microsoft is a very small player as a distant No. 3 to market leader Google.

Also, there is this annoying new parry by Google (GOOG) in the browser space, where Microsoft reigns, and the inroads being made by Apple (AAPL) in the personal computer (and, most critically, consumer mindshare) space.

Also, pick an online brand, once and for all, please. Live? MSN? MSN Live?

GOOGLE: Oh, aren’t those sprites over at the Googleplex so clever by releasing information about Google’s new browser, called Chrome, in comic book form?

Look, I am not a sourpuss, and I like the comic book.

But the company might be too clever by a half these days, I would say, if it does not show it can perform in other arenas with as much oomph as it does in its core online search ad business.

Of course, that’s kind of like saying five years ago that Microsoft better find a business as good as its lucrative Windows franchise.

But today the writing on the wall makes it more clear that the software giant is under siege, as never before, on multiple fronts.

While Google now mints money and has become scarily powerful in its grip over the entire Internet economy, I think it is only a matter of time before increased government scrutiny, worried competitors and partners, and a simple matter of corporate inertia and innovation exhaustion start to take some shine off of Google’s chrome (pun intended).

I still expect Google to keep on trying out its various schemes, from green tech to energy to–who knows?–space travel.

Nonetheless, Google must be careful as it grows not to step on too many things, including its own oversized feet.

Of course, the whole company will probably have blasted itself off to the planet it came from or will have replaced the human race with pods before any trouble starts.

But it is not so hard to imagine future life for Google will not be as side-splittingly hilarious as it is today.

FACEBOOK/MYSPACE: There are three basic issues for both companies, which are like the Goofus and Gallant of the social-networking world (and I am not saying which is which, either, because they are ever-changing).

First, there is the question of how much more they can grow their market share. While Facebook has been on the tear over the last year that MySpace was on the previous year, both desperately need to expand internationally and quickly to keep up those growth rates.

In addition, innovation of features and offerings remains paramount if the pair are to keep audiences currently using social networks interested and engaged.

(I know I am not as enamored with either as much as I previously was as a consumer, although I am, in Internet terms, 463 years old.)

Facebook just released a new platform and design and MySpace is about to unveil what looks like an interesting music service, but it’s an ongoing arms race to be sure.

More importantly, both must begin to turbocharge the social-advertising market in innovative ways and really start making some serious dollars.

While MySpace and Facebook are relying on guaranteed ad deals with Google and Microsoft, respectively, less and less, as they should, both must build substantial ad businesses for the long term.

That, of course, is the key issue. One distinct possibility for either or both is a sale or IPO (Facebook) or a spinoff (MySpace).

AMAZON: I have not studied the online retail powerhouse as closely as I used to (but I will be doing that this year, as promised).

Still, here is my thimble-sized take so far:

Love the Kindle e-book reader, think it is innovative and headline-grabbing, but it is simply not a huge or very profitable business at this juncture.

I am more interested in how deeply, quickly and profitably Amazon (AMZN) can push into the much larger business of digital distribution of all kinds of content.

Also, how it can even more efficiently sell more physical products. First and foremost, Amazon is a retailer, and how well it sells is what makes it successful.

WEB 2.0: Well, there are 3,265 Web 2.0 companies out there with valuations of $500 million.

Okay, I exaggerate. It’s 2,730.

All these cannot sell to the big boys. All cannot live by advertising revenues alone. And all these cannot become real, standalone businesses, although many can.

In other words, shakeout!

Thankfully, since few of these companies have been able to go public, as in the Web 1.0 era, it will be the venture investors who suffer (not the venture capitalists, of course, who always get paid).

It will be very interesting to see how it does shake out though, as there have been some really terrific and innovative ideas to bubble up from start-ups in this cycle.

Still, make no mistake, it is a cycle and the wheel always, always turns round.

But no matter the karma to come, let’s keep in mind the singing messages from one of the wisest movies ever made–which, it goes without saying, people, is the original “High School Musical”: We’re all in this together.

OK, this is not true of the blogosphere in any way whatsoever because we just love a good fight and carnage. But all you techies are just like one big rollicking high school.

To remind you, here is a video of the whole gang from “HSM,” including the pure genius of Ashley Tisdale as Sharpay, singing “We’re All in This Together.”

(And even better, the trailer of “HSM3: Senior Year,” which comes out–psyche–Oct. 24, below it.)

(And a big shout-out to Louie Swisher, who heads to the big time of first grade today. For my six-year-old start-up, I predict a thrilling year of reading, writing and ‘rithmetic.)

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.