US president Barack Obama will field questions focused on job creation and the economy during a LinkedIn town hall later today.
The event, titled “Putting America Back to Work”, will be filmed with a live audience made up of LinkedIn members and employees. While the audience will be given a platform to ask questions, Obama will also field questions posted on LinkedIn.
“In conjunction with the president's visit, LinkedIn has launched a community focused on job creation and the economy,” says the White House.
“Through this group, people are invited to join the conversation with president Obama by submitting questions for the town hall, contributing comments, and sharing content with their own network.”
LinkedIn is the largest professional network in the world, with 120 million registered users.
LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner says: “During the past several months, the national conversation has been increasingly focused on the state of the US economy.
“I can't think of a better way to expand that conversation than by opening it up for participation to millions of individuals interested in helping to solve our unemployment challenges.”
Questions can be posted in the specially created group “Putting America Back to Work 2011”.
Getting social
In July, Obama hosted a live Twitter town hall session, where he responded to questions with the #AskObama tag via a live Web cast.
Obama has also previously participated in a Facebook town hall event, in which Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg asked questions that had been posted on the social network.
Local talk
On the local front, the National Planning Commission (NPC) has also been bolstering its use of social media in an effort to engage with citizens.
The NPC Jam is a collaborative online brainstorming event that will be hosted by the NPC, together with IBM. The online forum for the Jam will run from midday on Wednesday, 28 September, until midday on Saturday, 1 October.
The first 20 000 people to register will be able to participate, and registration closes on Wednesday.
The NPC says the event specifically targets the youth and encourages a national dialogue about the challenges facing SA, vision 2030 and plans to achieve that vision.
According to the NPC, suggestions and contributions posted by participants during the Jam will be analysed and used to inform the vision for 2030 and the national plan to get there. Contributions may also be used to inform aspects of the NPC research agenda.
President Jacob Zuma has also been warming up to his @SAPresident Twitter account, and has close to 60 000 followers. He is, however, yet to participate in any kind of “town hall” events on social platforms.
Both the ANC and the DA ran live Q&A sessions on Twitter in the run up to this year's local government elections.
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