President Obama to go live Thursday on a Google Hangout.

President Obama is to live from The White House on a Google hangout this Thursday, two days after he delivers his 'State of the Union' address.

Called a 'Fireside hangout' it will also be on The White House YouTube channel and allows live questions/interaction (on the basis that you've submitted your questions in advance that is). Nearly a quarter of a million people submitted questions last time in January which was the first smaller attempt. You can also vote on questions submitted by others so the best are the ones that get through to the broadcast. And of course, it integrates with Twitter live, something Obama has used before as well as LinkedIn.

It's not the first time, a January broadcast was, but represents The President using Social Media now as a standard to communicate. The White House has also invited its big Social Media followers to hang with them on Tuesday and watch the address together. Aaahh. Still, bit of a thrill to get access to The White House.

It's brave enough too, being live streamed and expect the audience to be very big but it also shows the democratisation of the Internet. The ability to use Social Media to connect with people and spread your political message.

Ireland and the UK are far behind this - yet. 
Great opportunity for politicos.

Television broadcasting takes another hit at The Republican Convention. Google Hangouts are another nail in the broadcaster coffin.

Another nail arrives in the coffin of Television news broadcasting.
It's called Google hangouts.

What once was the exclusive domain of the Television networks, is now fully open to citizens and with encouragement from Google, they used it at length from The Republican Party Convention. Without the need to call "lights, action, make up", a whole new breed of citizens reported back live about the convention.

No trucks, no cables and no, media types.

Standing in front of small cameras or smartphones they did their report, their piece to camera, just in the style of Sky News, Fox or CBS. Some perhaps were a little unpolished - but that will come in time and some broadcasts were a bit, well, "fuzzy" but so too will that be corrected.

We are so used to Skype and dodgy cameraphone pics, that perhaps there is an honesty about this type of broadcasting. The fact that it's not manufactured, means it's real.

However, in return, what we got was honest news from honest attendees and the start of a technical revolution where "ordinary" people will become adapt at sending pictures back live via streaming networks. And easy it is.

Indeed. Google I suppose, is now a TV network in its own right with video "journalists" literally in every street, every home. Whilst the quality might not just be up to standard yet, it will be and one wonders how traditional TV stations are going to compete with this?

The answer is they can't unless they got involved in creating their own citizen network which they haven't and they won't. They see the intenet as a threat and so they pooh-pooh it and run away whilst their newspaper competitors embrace it and jump onboard. It is newspapers that will be the new TV.

Whilst Google isn't a "content company" (like Streamabout), it is a network that facilitates the distribution of content and although not quite "there yet" it's well on the way. The Huffington Post Live is one of the great early adopters of this type of hangout news.  And I blogged here about that recently http://streamabout.blogspot.ie/2012/08/tv-broadcasters-watch-out-newspapers.html

See what you think and then ponder the future for TV news.
Then think about Netflix and the future of TV entertainment.
Then think about Apple TV and the future of TV companies.
And wonder how they let it all get past them.