Obama gets ready to answer public's questions online

The White House announced that President Obama will answer questions from the public during a special online town hall meeting on the economy on Thursday. Citizens can submit questions via WhiteHouse.gov and vote on which questions the president should take during the event.

The new experiment, dubbed "Open for Questions" is the Obama administration's latest foray into the world of social media. In addition to his regular media activities the president has posted online videos of himself speaking to the American people. The event tomorrow will mark the first time questions for the president are chosen by citizens online.

During his campaign, Obama promised he would use the Internet to give the public unprecedented access to his administration's inner workings. Government observers hailed the online town hall a strong indication that he plans to live up to his word.

"It's a great idea because it diversifies the type of people who ask questions of the president," said Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "Giving Web site visitors the opportunity to vote on the best questions is the ultimate example of democracy."

Obama's public outreach comes at time when the administration is dealing with heightened scrutiny in the media over its plans to provide financial relief to companies such as AIG and encourage investors to purchase troubled assets. The online town hall meeting could be one way for the president to take his message directly to the public, bypassing traditional media. West said Obama's efforts to engage the public online through sites like WhiteHouse.gov and Recovery.gov, which detail administration initiatives, have been popular.

"His job approval rating is above 60 percent; people like what he's doing. One of the things they appreciate is his use of new media," West said. "He's really become our first truly digital president, somebody who understands all the new forms of communication. He is to social media what John F. Kennedy was to television."

Julie Moos, director of Poynter Online at the Poynter Institute for journalists in St. Petersburg, Fla., agrees that Obama's use of the Internet to let citizens drive the conversation is unprecedented. "Other presidents have spoken directly to the public in other ways, what's different is they are finding a way to keep supporters engaged in the political process, not just with [the administration] but with each other," she said.

The online town hall is "a huge step forward and an exciting experiment," said Ellen Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington nonprofit focused on using the Internet to increase government transparency. And allowing the public to vote on questions is "pretty brave," she said.

But the White House staff must be thinking "there's probably no question out there that this president hasn't been asked," Miller said. Conceptually, she compared the event to any other town hall meeting or campaign stop where a politician has to field random questions.

But Miller said the town hall is all about communication and has little to with increasing transparency. Sites like Recovery.gov are more likely to succeed in opening government information to citizens, she said, because they shed light on government actions such as where and how economic stimulus funds are spent.