Thursday, February 9, 2012

Obama's Online Town Hall Returns

July 1, 2009

openforqs.jpgThe White House will bring back its popular online town hall concept on Wednesday with an event streamed live on the Internet that will focus on healthcare reform. President Obama will answer questions from an on-site audience at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va., as well as queries from the Internet. His senior advisor Valerie Jarrett will moderate the event. Unlike Obama's March town hall, which pulled questions about job creation and the economy from a user-generated list on the White House Web site, this time the administration has reached out to social networking site Facebook, video sharing site YouTube and micro-blogging platform Twitter.

On Saturday, Obama posted a video asking for questions on healthcare reform and in just a few days, the Web team received hundreds of submissions. "The questions spanned the ideological spectrum, and ranged from heart-breaking and personal to almost wonkishly policy-focused," White House Online Programs Director Jesse Lee wrote in a blog post. Citizens can watch, discuss, and engage at 1:15 p.m. EDT through a Facebook live-stream chat application and viewers can send comments at WhiteHouse.gov/live or take part in a conversation on Twitter using hashtag #WHHCQ.

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Juliana Gruenwald

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Juliana Gruenwald has been covering tech and telecom issues for more than a decade for National Journal, Interactive Week, BNA and Congressional Quarterly. This is her second stint with National Journal. She was recruited by NJ in 1998 to help launch its first tech policy publication, Technology Daily. She left in 2000 to cover international tech and telecom issues for Ziff Davis Media's Interactive Week magazine. She started her career at United Press International as the wire service's first Helen Thomas Intern. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota. A Minneapolis native, she misses the lakes but not the cold.


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Josh Smith covers technology policy as a staff reporter for National Journal. He previously interned at National Journal Daily, a Senate press office, and the Deseret News in Salt Lake City where he covered the state legislature, courts, and crime. In 2009 he graduated with honors from Southern Utah University after managing an award-winning student newspaper as editor-in-chief. Josh has received state, regional and national awards for his political and policy reporting, including first place in CapitolBeat’s 2009 Best of Statehouse Reporting college competition. A native of drop-dead-gorgeous Utah, Josh lives in Virginia with his wife, Amber.