Microsoft TownHall: Building Public Online Communities - Microsoft On The Issues

See the full press release and the TownHall link below for more details

As social media tools have matured, the Web has enabled more and more two-way conversations between leaders and the people they serve, as well as between candidates and voters. The result is a more participatory process that gives citizens new ways to be heard.

To facilitate an even greater level of engagement, Microsoft has built a tool called TownHall, which is designed to maximize the benefit of online discussions. TownHall is part of Campaign Ready, a broader set of technologies for campaigns announced today at the Politics Online Conference in Washington, D.C. These resources will enable candidates and their staffs to use a rich set of familiar and emerging Microsoft technologies to identify and engage citizens on the Web as part of their campaign efforts.

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TownHall is a cloud-based solution hosted on Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform, and can be accessed in real-time through any mobile device. It’s easy to get started, and the code can be downloaded here for free - http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/TownHall.

Microsoft TownHall: Building Public Online Communities - Microsoft On The Issues