+Peter G McDermott is amazing! He decided to dig further into the Google+ users that were granted access to chat with +The White House & the President last night.
Personally I'm ticked that the accounts were fresh – to me indicating that they were new joiners just for the event and not dedicated and valuable members of the Google+ community.
Reshared post from +Peter G McDermott
EXCLUSIVE +G+ Interviews President Obama Hangout Follow-Up Interview
Last night after President +Barack Obama participated in a live +Google+ Hangout with 5 ordinary Americans and a Google moderator, I set out to discover who those people were that hung out with the President.
After a bit of thorough research, I was able to find very fresh profiles for +Jennifer Wedel, +Christine Wolf, +Ramon Ray, +Adam Clark and +Paras Patel as well as Google moderator +Steve Grove.
A lot of users were curious as to whether or not the hangout was “real” and if the people chosen to participate were “props.” The video and audio quality were certainly higher fidelity than what we would expect from our normal hangouts that stretch the corners of the globe. However, as Google Director of Engineering +Chee Chew pointed out, Google had to put out their best china for the President.
After attempts to get in touch with all participants of the hangout, I was able to set up some time to speak with +Jennifer Wedel shortly after the Presidential hangout to learn about her experience and open the floor to an unscripted, unrehearsed and unscheduled Q&A session with 9 other Google+ users.
Some of the users participating in the post-Obama interview included +Johnny Roquemore, +John Fanavans, +Raleigh Burke, +Amanda Blain, +Brett Bjornsen, +Allen Firstenberg, +Sheila DuBois, +Christopher Lira, +Mike Stenger, +Michael O'Reilly and +Carter Gibson.
This interview was conducted before +Jennifer Wedel was able to appear on +MSNBC TV (+msnbc.com) because that appearance would require a ride to her local NBC affiliate, unlike her first two interviews, which were conducted from the comfort of her home using Google Hangout technology. That is a true testament to the direction of television and Internet video journalism.
I hope you enjoy this interview and the fact that it was raw and uncut. Please feel free to share with your favorite media outlets as well as friends and family. Thank you, +Jennifer Wedel for your time. We look forward to hosting +Ramon Ray for the next series of +G+ Interviews.
Google+: Reshared 6 times
Google+: View post on Google+
Well he ignored the real top questions which of course were from community members. Google didn't want to mess this up by asking tough questions, so at least we know our Prez is into tennis… 🙁
It would have been more interesting if the questions were approved by the white house and unknown to Google..lol.
As cool as this is, it does kinda stink of setup press conference.
I just watched it all on you tube and it was your average presidential style political jibba jabba.
That guy has what to say and the manner in way to say it pressed into him by his advisors..it was never going to be a hangout like we know it.
New joiners suggests plants.
I didn't get a chance to watch any of it (I was out), but I will have to go and do the replay. All of the townhalls are like that also, none of the government folks (in office or wanting to be….) let unknown or unscripted questions fly.
Any event like this is carefully controlled by the parties involved… I'm sure each of them was evaluated by the secret service (at least partially) and all the questions were screened…
At least it highlighted the existence of G+ to the rest of the world…
None of these politicians would probably do well in a standard chat room or hangout… Hell most of them probably wouldn't understand anything beyond the fax machine era…=)
+Lynette Young Sources tell me that the questions were approved by Google but unknown to +The White House prior to the interview.
Of course it stinks. It's "the Chicago Way" That's Obama. He's a crook
haha! i agree. probably plants so things wouldnt get out of hand
That would be cool to be in on. I would have gobs of followers!!!111 I think I could talk the President into some Call of Duty or something.
I wondered about who got chosen to be in the hangouts. But seriously, given the way SS has to clear places the president goes, I'm not really surprised at seeing brand new accounts and scrubbing going on with the hangout.