About two hours before President Barack Obama‘s press conference last night, I saw this update in my Facebook feed:
Here’s the actual video:
Inviting Americans to submit their questions about the economy to the President and giving them a chance to have them addressed not only helps the President burst the White House bubble, it invests those Americans with a stake in his economic plan’s success.
By allowing visitors to the Open For Questions section of WhiteHouse.gov to vote on the questions that are submitted, he can get a sense of what these Americans think is important.
The way that this administration is using Internet technologies to communicate with Americans and engage them in their government is profound.
Each subsequent president will be expected to do the same and as a result, government cannot but become more and more open. This administration’s use of the Internet also sets the tone and serves as an example of how other units of government should interact with the public.
It’s good policy and good politics.
UPDATE: The technology that will power the virtual town hall on Whitehouse.gov is Google Moderator.
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