President Obama in Egypt - LIVE on CO.NX

Land of Peace (and online world) Awaits

CO.NX will broadcast President Barack Obama's speech live from Cairo on Thursday, June 4 (@ 13:10 Egypt time; 6:10am EDT (1010GMT)). The site is using the Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro Meeting platform and a thousand discussants can be accommodated on its page. Online participants may join the web simulcast and online discussion on a first-come, first-serve basis on June 4.

https://townhall.connectsolutions.com/conx_obama

The CO.NX virtual guestbook opened on June 1^st. The page is already populated with greetings (mostly favorable comments) and hopeful wishes from a host of countries: Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, Dubai, Indonesia, Gaza City, Afghanistan, Argentina, India, South Africa, Japan, Ghana, Tunisia, Brasilia, and Panama.

I have been to a similar CO.NX event before where the moderator kept interrupting the commenters which can get pretty irritating quickly. I have to say that the staff here is different (I’ll have to check it again when the speech unfolds). But when they get something close to a rant, they remain courteous, and the Q&A seems to be seamless:

BROADCAST PAKISTAN: (02:49) How Long , OBAMA TEAM will continue to let world be a War Zone amidst economic stress and world peace deficite?

CO.NX Moderator (Mark): (02:49) Thanks for your comment. We believe the Administration is working to end conflicts around the world, this trip is part of an effort to build bridges to Muslims everywhere.

The staff also patiently explains the process to its users:

Karim: (02:50) how does this go i dont understand

CO.NX Moderator (Mark): (02:50) Hi Karim, welcome. Here is what will happen in this chat. On June 4 you will see the President broacast in the Pod in the upper left. We will also be taking your comments and thoughts as the speech goes on and then after the speech. President Obama and his team want to know what you and others around the world have to say about issues that affect us all.

An online poll in the same page asks the question: Will President Obama's speech help relations between the U.S. and the Middle East? Of those who voted, 93% said “yes.”

CO.NX is a project of the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP). I'd be interested to see how many people actually comes back to watch and/or join the discussion during his speech tomorrow.

Watch or join the online discussion @
https://townhall.connectsolutions.com/conx_obama

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President Obama Live on CO.NX: Shall I link to this?