Today, President Obama helped score big points for Google+ with a Hangout interview. While most interviews with the president usually rely on a medium like a major network or a press conference, it seems Obama has decided to take his message straight to the people by having select questions being asked to him. So far, in watching this interview, there are questions about jobs, the economy, small businesses, and much more. Google is moderating this and they have a few people already lined up to question the leader of the United States. Even questions submitted to the White House from YouTube are being showcased here – I just saw one of an Occupy Portland protester ask about why she can’t get a job for five years.

While these great Hangouts aren’t anything new for Google+, this is the first time ever that a sitting president has had direct and unfettered lines of communication with the working man and woman in the country — Google+ is calling it the “first-ever completely virtual interview from the White House“. This isn’t a debate and people are free to interject and interrupt the president (as one did early on) and have a true conversation. Of course Google+ hangouts are subjected to the 10 person limit and with Obama taking up one space (naturally), it only leaves nine spots for people to ask questions. According to MSNBC, according to a Google spokeswoman, all questions being asked were “submitted and ranked by the YouTube community and selected by Google.” Looks like the WhiteHouse didn’t vet these people and the ones that had the highest growth probably got the prized spots in this Hangout.  This ain’t one of your normal press conference, folks!

To watch the Google+ hangout and hear the President’s response, click here.

Photo Credit: The White House via Edjane Obama

by Brian Solis

Al Gore closed the Web 2.0 Summit with a powerful, inspiring, and uniting keynote that earned two standing ovations and honorary residence in the hearts and minds of Silicon Valley’s catalysts for innovation and change.

He opened the session in response to the first of two standing ovations with a sense of humor, but also a reaffirmation of what brought us together dating back to his Presidential bid in 2000, “Wow, what a week.” The room erupted into applause.

“It couldn’t have happened without the World Wide Web, without the Internet,” Gore acknowledged.

Al Gore documented this election as nothing short of, “the electrifying redemption of America’s revolutionary declaration that all human beings are created equal.”

“It would not have been possible without the additional empowerment of individuals to use knowledge as a source of power that has come with the Internet,” he proclaimed.

His vision for the Web is its sense of “purpose,” which is how we can take the evolution of not only the technology that defines it, but also the people who use it to communicate with one another. “I believe Web 2.0 has to have a purpose,” Gore observed.

Gore envisions a sense of purpose and promise in what he called “World 2.0:” Web 2.0 used for social betterment.

“Just as Barack Obama’s election would’ve been impossible without the new dialogue and new ways of interacting, the only way climate change is going to be solved is by addressing the democracy crisis, and the country hit a great blow for victory this week, but we have to take this issue and raise it in the awareness of everyone,” Gore said.

Gore continued later during his interview with conference organizers Tim O’Reilly and John Batelle, “I think that it is very much in its infancy, barely beginning, and I think that we are not many years away from television sort of sinking into the digital world and becoming a part of it.”

His continued “purpose” is to advance the democratization of media, where people are in control of not only what they consume, but are also empowered to create, distribute, and influence through media.

Al Gore

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For more pictures from Al Gore’s presentation at Web 2.0 Summit, please visit my album on flickr.

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