President Obama to join Twitter's Jack Dorsey in White House town hall

President Obama, no stranger to social networks and public meetings, will participate in a melding of the two July 6, when he will have an online town hall at the White House moderated by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.

"Today, the White House announced through its official Twitter account, @whitehouse, that it will host its first ever Twitter town hall on Wednesday, July 6, at 2 p.m. ET in the East Room of the White House. Twitter co-founder and Executive Chairman Jack Dorsey will moderate a conversation between President Obama and Americans across the country about the economy and jobs. Starting today, Twitter users can submit questions using the hashtag #AskObama. More information from Twitter can be found at the event’s homepage: http://askobama.twitter.com," the White House said in a statement.

Obama, who has almost 9 million followers to his @BarackObama Twitter feed, joined billionaire Mark Zuckerberg in April for a Facebook town hall. Obama used that platform to explain some of his policies and didn't hesitate to take shots at Republicans.

"The Republican budget put forward is fairly radical, but I would not call it courageous," Obama said in April. "You can call that bold; I would call it shortsighted."

Dorsey, who sent the world's first tweet while testing out the system in March 2006, appears to be a fan of the president. In December 2008 the Twitter co-founder tweeted, "Obama is the only president in my lifetime who's used the word 'empathy.' That's exciting."

What must also have been exciting for Dorsey this week was when his new start-up, Square, announced that it had raised $100 million of investment.

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Photo: President Obama uses his BlackBerry on June 3, 2010, as he walks at Sidwell Friends school in Bethesda, Md. Call him the Digital Candidate: He has asked supporters to use Facebook to declare "I'm in" for his reelection campaign and has begun using Twitter to communicate with his nearly 9 million followers. Credit: AP Photo/Charles Dharapak