obama's online town hall meeting

i am all for this. transparency in government is very important. however, considering that many people in the united states either do not have regular access to the internet and/or do not possess the knowledge to use the technology, this is not a very representative sample of the population. isn't this a democracy? why, then, are we not hearing from all sides? how are they accomodating those affected by the various digital divides? i'd like to hear a story about that.

growing list of people i want to befriend

1) howard rheingold
i first read his work after being assigned some articles in a class entitled "social uses of new media". i now follow him on twitter after citing said work in a paper on microblogging. this man is so intelligent and witty. i want to take his class at stanford university, discuss the theoretical aspects of communities with him, and have dinner parties with him and his wife.