This week, the White House, along with Google+, hosted two online White House Hangouts allowing interactions with top government officials. The first one (held on January 30th) featured President Barack Obama himself answering questions about his State of the Union address. Several people chatted live with the president, and others had submitted their questions via YouTube. It was a chance to ask the president tough questions, like the woman who asked why H-1B visas were still allowed when so many engineers – like her husband – were out of work and couldn’t find jobs. Another question asked why money is sent to Pakistan and other countries that do not like the United States instead of using the money here at home. It was an interesting discussion on various issues.
Today, the White House and Google+ hosted the second White House Hangout talking about the Startup America Partnership which is a government initiative to support and encourage small businesses. Gene Sperling (Director of the National Economic Council), Steve Case (Chairman of the Startup America Partnership), and Aneesh Chopra (US Chief Technology Officer) answered video questions about entrepreneurism and start-up support in America. I learned about the program and how it is setting up regional groups to encourage, support, and mentor those starting small businesses. They talked about the tax incentives for creating jobs here at home and talked about their efforts to start crowd funding where citizens can invest money into start-ups. They talked about how government data has been released to the public in the hopes that individuals can use it to create new businesses (like Mike Krieger who created crime maps from publicly available data).
Not only did I learn a lot in both Hangouts, I feel that they give ordinary citizens a chance to have a voice. If you are interested in attending the next one, just sign up for the White House newsletter. I hope that whoever wins the next election will continue to host White House Hangouts.
