With help from the Google Plus team, and the participation of Governor Gary Johnson and Dr. Jill Stein, we hosted the first presidential debate aired entirely online. We brought two candidates, separated by distance, together to discuss issues largely ignored by the Republican and Democratic candidates. Steve Peace, co-founder of the Independent Voter Project, moderated the debate from San Diego, California. Using the technology of Google+, we were able to bring alternative voices into the debate, with questions directly posed by our online audience.
After a technological hiccup, the conversation heavily turned into back and forth debate on climate, education, the mortgage meltdown, drones, and our role abroad: issues that were blatantly missing from Tuesday's televised Presidential Debate.
Not only were the two candidates sparring online, voters on Twitter were actively engaging in a lively debate of the issues. Unlike the twitter feeds from Tuesday's debate, tweet chat #indyvote was populated with tweets about the issues. Users debated the merits of education reform, solutions to poverty, and plans for climate change and green energy.
Here's what people were saying about IVN's Presidential Debate:
https://twitter.com/BrennanVoorheis/status/259084219958038529
https://twitter.com/petermjaworski/status/259083921847898112
https://twitter.com/THE_Smoot/status/259085051839528960
https://twitter.com/DavidRDavidson/status/259084641737252864
https://twitter.com/thehuli/status/259079048548990976
https://twitter.com/IVNetwork/status/259081337649111040
https://twitter.com/Corissa_S/status/259083487527718913
https://twitter.com/natoney/status/259079979118252032
https://twitter.com/holliebakerlutz/status/259083179758071811
https://twitter.com/ArnKaren/status/259081317046689792
https://twitter.com/Sleppery/status/259087037200740353
https://twitter.com/strshipcaptain/status/259084303944802304
https://twitter.com/natoney/status/259079321526878209
https://twitter.com/THE_Smoot/status/259076004910333953