Obama Prepares Live Google+ Broadcast

In what will be seen as a huge move for the emerging social networking service known as Google+, the service has revealed that it is scheduled to host a live Q&A session with one of the best-known names in the world

Global public figures do not get much bigger than a US president, and it is Barack Obama that will be the ‘host’ of a live Google+ ‘Hangout’ event 6 days from now. The president will headline a group of at least 25 members of his political administration, as they take turns to respond to selected questions posted in by users in the fall-out from tomorrow’s State of the Union address.

The ‘Hangout’ event, which will be staged on 30 January and the week surrounding it, is thought to correspond with the US government’s aims of extending coverage and public interest in the annual State of the Union address, which provides a summary of the current state of the USA in general, and discusses general plans for the year ahead.

Each politician participating in the Google+ event will be allocated their own slot on the ‘Hangout’, offering users a chance to field questions to a more specialised recipient if needbe.

As a means of vetting the questions asked, potential users have been told to upload their question as a 30-second clip to the White House’s official YouTube page, with the people responsible for the best questions invited to take part in a real-time Google+ ‘Hangout’.

An official White House statement discussed the deal, saying: “The President is committed to creating a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. That’s why President Obama and more than 25 members of his administration will be responding to your questions about the speech all week and talking about the issues that matter most to you.”

A key topic that may be discussed by internet users is the SOPA controversy, with Obama’s administration recently claiming that they are against the bill, adding that they do not want to ‘facilitate online censorship’. As online emotions will be running high with this topic, will a chance to speak to the President (virtually) ’face-to-face’ manage to blow over smoothly? There’s always one…