Yahoo says this is a first step in interactive initiatives for the 2012 Presidential elections, which also includes crowdsourcing materials through Yahoo Answers (asking questions for the candidates pre-debate) and Flickr (uploading images that best represent the state of the country).

FORBES: For ABC's Republican Debate, A Yahoo App To Goad Gingrich And Rile Romney

Meanwhile, a British company called Myndplay is creating short interactive films in which viewers step into the shoes of the protagonists and influence the plot by focusing or relaxing.

ECONOMIST: Brainwave controllers

The next step is to make interactive ads.

ECONOMIST: Facial monitoring

Hong Kong Telecom plans to bring the world's first commercial video-on-demand service to the territory this year, the first step toward full-scale interactive television.

CNN: BUSINESS

Interactive whiteboards were being promoted, wireless networks were seen as being another evolutionary step in online education and there were software packages for everything from tackling truancy to writing reports.

BBC: Future imperfect?

At Interior, we redesigned Recreation.gov as an initial step in a multi-year strategy to engage visitors with enhanced interactive web content and more multimedia, mobile, trip-planning tools.

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