Introducing Microsoft TownHall

Technology is dramatically impacting the way governments communicate and engage with citizens; how people and organizations take part in political campaigns and advocacy; and how people build communities of common interest.  The 2008 election cycle brought this idea front and center with some dramatic examples of the power of the Internet to change the ways people engage and organize. 

Microsoft has built an application that combines the grassroots appeal of the town hall meeting with the reach of the Web.  Today at the Politics Online Conference  we announced a new application, appropriately enough called TownHall.  This cloud-based application allows everyone from political candidates to consumers to talk about important issues within an online “town hall.”

We think it will be a great tool for facilitating discussion on important subjects faced by everyone from the neighborhood level on up. 

Read more about it in Pamela Passman and Curt Kolcun’s blog post in Microsoft on the Issues

TownHall is part of a broader set of resources called Campaign Ready which allow you to use familiar and emerging Microsoft technologies to engage citizens. The initial tools are already available, many of them free, and there are more to come.

 

Posted by Dominic Carr
Director, Microsoft News Center.