Social media guide to Davos posted online

A Swiss police sniper stands on top of the Congress Center on Jan. 25, 2011 in Davos where the World Economic Forum annual meeting will take place. Switzerland has mobilised up to 5,000 soldiers to secure the areas surrounding the alpine village of Davos, where world political and economic leaders are to gather this week. (Johannes Eisele/Getty Images)

Social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are being utilized by organizers of the Davos World Economic Forum in Switzerland at the 2011 meeting to include the general public in the discussions.

Sessions will be streamed live on the Davos site and there will be updates from the WEF's official Twitter account.

There is also a list of world leaders attending the meeting and lined up to comment on Twitter discussions. Of the 2,500 participants, 400 are active on Twitter.

These world leaders will be answering questions uploaded by people on YouTube from two video stations at the venue which have been called the Social Media Corner.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will be the first one to answer a selection of the questions.

The Forum has developed a World Economic Forum application for iPhone and Android smartphones for the general public available in the app stores. The application integrates all of the Forum’s social media output — Twitter, Blog, YouTube and Flickr. 

A group of young global leaders and the tech pioneers have been invited to the gathering and will be reporting and commenting.

And Bill Gates and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt are among the tech celebrities attending the forum.

The discussions can also be followed through the livestream application on Facebook, which allows people to comment and share as they watch. Or you can explore the different venues using geolocation on Foursquare.

A selection of the best pictures from the Annual Meeting will be made available free of charge under the creative commons license on Flickr. 

All press conferences and key plenary sessions will be streamed live on Livestream. During press conferences, anyone can field questions directly to the panelists via Twitter and Facebook.

The plenary sessions will also be available on demand on the Forum’s YouTube channel. Session videos from the Annual Meeting will be available here. For those inclined, here's the complete guide on how to follow the World Economic Forum: 

How to Follow the Annual Meeting 2011 on Social Networks

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/commerce/110125/davos-world-economic-forum-switzerland-twitter-facebook-social-media