Remember Myspace?! Obama has come a long way from using Yahoo answers to engage his audience in 2007.
"we should all want a smarter, more effective Government" - @BarackObama#SOTU#opengov
— renée berry (@rfberry) January 25, 2012
I found it really interesting to see how Twitter is starting to play a more active role in the way government is engaging the public. Last year I live tweeted the State of The Union, but there was no call from the White House inviting commentary and questions like there was this year. Considering I think everyone should take a more active role in public policy, I really appreciate the Obama Administration's consistency in embracing new technology to engage Americans.
Want a peek behind the scenes of the #SOTU? Here's the story of how it comes together youtube.com/watch?v=FxwcJx…
— The White House (@whitehouse) January 24, 2012
The commentary on Twitter was fast and firey and it was fun to see tweets both from people I agree and disagree with during the State of the Union speech tonight. I'm looking forward to diving into the analysis TweetReach(hopefully) releases since the data in their post on the presidential primaries was so intriguing. What's really fascinating though is looking at the impact of technology on the presidential race in 2008. An article titled "Vote Myspace '08" discusses the contrast between John Edwards embracing Twitter compared to Rudy Giuliani who apparently had a private Myspace account. There are so many funny aspects of this article (and others) clearly speaking to the pace at which relevance moves. My favorite part is what obviously still rings true today, regardless of the platform just substitute the current year:
"the Internet will still play a major role in 2008." -Rick Munarriz
I also have to point out, the unpaid blogger at Uncrunched was ahead of his time with his 2007 suggestion that it would be more interesting to host a presidential primary on Facebook than on Myspace. Arrington's ability to see the depth of Facbeook's value is especially noteworthy considering the current utilization of Facebook in government (and honestly, everywhere else) today.
In case you missed it, here's the video of tonight's the State of the Union by President Obama:
Watch President Obama's State of the Union Address: youtu.be/Zgfi7wnGZlE & join the conversation @ wh.gov/sotu#SOTU
— The White House (@whitehouse) January 25, 2012