What is the 21st Century equivalent of Franklin Roosevelt’s famous radio addresses to the nation known as “Fireside chats?” The White House seems to think Google+ Hangouts is it, as the administration is calling its series of video-chat conferences “Fireside Hangouts.”
The first Fireside Hangout under the new administration, as announced today on an official Google blog post, will focus on the reduction of gun violence, specifically “the White House policy recommendations.” Besides Vice President Joe Biden who is leading the Hangout, guests include two very big names in different corners of the tech industry: Silicon Valley’s favorite entrepreneur and writer Guy Kawasaki and YouTube celebrity and businessman Philip DeFranco. PBS NewsHour’s Hari Sreenivasan will moderate.
(See video of Guy Kawasaki in conversation with ReadWrite Editor in Chief Dan Lyons: Guy Kawasaki On Android vs. iPhone and Guy Kawasaki On Self-Publishing In The 21st Century.)
Conspicuously absent from the Hangout?
Any community leader or organization that deals with reducing gun violence (like the Chicago initiative CeaseFire, for example). It is unclear how Kawasaki and DeFranco have been affected by gun violence, and their inclusion in this hangout – which is bound to attract digital mobs of impassioned people – reads like as a ploy to get press and increase Hangout attendance among the Technorati crowd.
The Fireside Hangout on reducing gun violence will take place on Thursday, January 24 at 1:45pm Eastern Time, and viewers can tune in via the White House Google+ page or its YouTube channel.
Biden image courtesy of Jason and Bonnie Grower / Shutterstock.com.
