Nearly two years ago, I helped pen a posting here, suggesting that politicians should embrace a new town hall format. The idea was that the Internet and user-ranked questions would help leverage a community's voice and provide real insight into the minds of constituents. Not only that, the Internet promised to grow the size of the town hall, putting more people "in the room" than ever before. This morning I watched the President's Internet Town Hall, comprised primarily of user-ranked questions, and I'm glad to see how far we've come. In fact, yesterday the General Services Administration announced agreements allowing the use of Flickr, YouTube, and Blip.tv by federal agencies, a large step in the right direction towrds meeting people where they're at on the Internet. However, these are only the first steps.

The way we interact with Government is about to change, and the shape of that change is up to us. The Internet is not just a way to raise money or mobilize supporters. It's a way to shrink the distance between people and politicians. For the first time in history, it's possible for hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people to have a single conversation. I'm not talking about the elimination of traditional news media or the implementation of a direct democracy. Expertise is important, and there will always be a need for professional journalists and public servants devoting all their energies towards government. I'm talking about adding a complementary channel, a new seat at the table.

The story behind the voting on Round One, with our explanation of how we checked for ballot-stuffing. And yes, some people did try to cheat, but it didn't affect the results.

So here at 10Questions we don't just reply to your feedback with blog entries. We include site updates too. This week's highlights: grid or list viewing and the ability to filter videos based on whether or not you've voted on them. Micah summarized these in his last post, but I'd like to add a little background. Most of the blogosphere has nice things to say about 10Questions, but let's focus on some criticism. We learn more that way.