It’s Miller Time: Congressmember Uses Video, Facebook Application to Create Online Town Hall around Iraq War

[Sorry, couldn’t resist the obvious.] Justin Hamilton with Cong. George Miller’s office has written in to promote an interesting integrated online campaign called “Ask George” that the congressmember is running — he’s asking people to submit video questions about the Iraq war to any of the major video-sharing sites tagged with the term “askgeorge,” and he’ll answer them on his MillerTV video podcast (no word on how many questions he’ll take per week). He’ll also take appropriately titled emails as well as messages sent through an Ask George Facebook group. Finally, Miller’s folks have worked with vendor SplashCast media to create a Facebook Application (the first by a Congressmember?) to display MillerTV video, which I just installed to check it out. Here’s Miller’s video explanation of the campaign:

Very cool concept all around: as Justin puts it, it’s the “first interactive, multi-dimensional congressional town hall, and first congressional facebook application. Our goal is to use new media to further engage the public in a critical public policy issue and help bring us closer to achieving a new direction in the Iraq war. The idea is to have this conversation take place, not on our site, but where ever it is people are online.”

One small recommendation: for MillerTV, go with the more casual setting rather than the formal standup — Miller seems much more relaxed and conversational sitting in his office. Otherwise, excellent way to use the medium — combining video back-and-forth, content-tagging and social networking. Oh, and don’t forget good old email.

– cpd