On November 8, 1999,

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

Bill Clinton participated in the first ever presidential

webcast A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand. Essentially, web ...

produced by

Excite@Home @Home Network was a high-speed cable Internet service provider from 1996 to 2002. It was founded by Milo Medin, cable companies Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), Comcast, and Cox Communications, and William Randolph Hearst III, who was their f ...

Network in partnership with the Democratic Leadership Council. The forum was held at George Washington University in Washington DC, moderated by DLC chairman, Al From and directed by

Marc Scarpa Marc Scarpa (born September 25, 1969, in New York City) is an American entrepreneur, producer and director specializing in live participatory media. He is the executive board member and the founding New York Chair of the Producers Guild of Amer ...

. The webcast made use of the most cutting edge, IP-enabled technology of the time including streaming video remote feeds that connected the President to New Democrat leaders, including Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, then Lt. Governor of Maryland; Donald T. Cunningham, Jr., then mayor of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Wisconsin State Rep. Antonio Riley; Ron Gonzales, then mayor of San Jose, and Jeanne Shaheen, then governor of New Hampshire along with

Netscape Netscape Communications Corporation (originally Mosaic Communications Corporation) was an American independent computer services company with headquarters in Mountain View, California and then Dulles, Virginia. Its Netscape web browser was onc ...

co-founder

Marc Andreessen Marc Lowell Andreessen ( ; born July 9, 1971) is an American entrepreneur, investor, and software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and general partner of Silicon ...

. The webcast was entitled "

Third Way Politics The Third Way is a centrist political position that attempts to reconcile right-wing and left-wing politics by advocating a varying synthesis of centre-right economic policies with centre-left social policies. The Third Way was born from a ...

in the Information Age", a nod to Clinton's centrist political platform and the burgeoning age of the internet. The President and participants engaged in an online discussion on a range of issues from Medicare to

gun control Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms by civilians. Most countries have a restrictive firearm guiding policy, with on ...

via questions submitted by the online users. 50,000 participants logged on to chat live with the President for 90 minutes (he stayed on for an additional 20 minutes). The webcast was likened to a 21st-century version of

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

fireside chats The fireside chats were a series of evening radio addresses given by Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, between 1933 and 1944. Roosevelt spoke with familiarity to millions of Americans about recovery from the Great De ...

with a similar impact to John F. Kennedy's use of the television broadcast. Clinton, who acted as a proponent of access to the internet and technology for lower income areas, said that the chat utilized, "the most modern technology for . . . old-fashioned communication between the American people and their president." The President recognized the high rate of growth in internet connectivity (1.3 million computers were connected to the internet when he took office as opposed to 56 million connected at the time of the chat) and that the webcast was a new way to connect with people from all across the country and allow them to participate in the democratic process. The broadcast received worldwide media attention and was simultaneously broadcast live throughout the United States on several television news networks including CNN, MSNBC and NBC. In 2005, the historical participatory media event was inducted into the permanent collection of the

Clinton Presidential Library The William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum is the presidential library of Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States (1993–2001). It is located in Little Rock, Arkansas and includes the Clinton Presidential Library, t ...

, in Little Rock, Arkansas and is the first Internet-age broadcast in a Presidential library.First Presidential Webcast, 'Online Town Hall With President William Jefferson Clinton', Now Part of Clinton Presidential Library
/ref> The event has stood the test of time, as a model for real-time political communication between the President and voters.

References

{{Bill Clinton 1999 in American politics 1999 in computing 1999 in Washington, D.C. Democratic Party (United States) events E-government in the United States George Washington University Internet events Internet in the United States Livestreams November 1999 events in the United States Presidency of Bill Clinton United States town halls