“The President of the United States is on the Phone. Would You Like to Hangout on Google+?”

We're suddenly very close to science fiction becoming reality television, live streamed to large and small screens around the world. On Monday, January 30th, 2012, the fireside chats that FDR hosted on citizens' radios in the 20th century will have a digital analogue in the new millennium: President Barack Obama will host a Google+ Hangout from the West Wing, only a few weeks after the White House joined Google+.

If you have a question for the president, you can ask it by submitting a video to the White House's video channel, where you can also vote upon other questions. The president will be answering "several of the most popular questions that have been submitted throughYouTube, and some of the people who submitted questions will even be invited to join the president in the Hangout and take part in the live conversation," explained Kori Schulman, deputy director of digital content at the White House, at the White House blog.

This upcoming "President Hangout" offers a fascinating window into what bids to be a disruptive scenario for citizen-to-government (or citizen-to-citizen) communications in our near future. Mobile Hangouts on smartphones running the world's biggest mobile operating system, Android, could enable citizens to connect to important conversations from wherever a call finds them.