Get into the political mix in New Orleans…

New Orleans has some interesting political races coming up and Gambit’s The Best Of New Orleans has launched Electionland so that you can ask them about the things that matter to you – directly. Yes, it’s true.

No media middlement, just you talking directly to your representatives and them answering your questions personally. Go check out.

Questionland Experts Launches

The Stranger has launched Questionland Experts. It’s a place where the community can ask experts questions – you get answers from the professionals.

The Q&A is topical and relevant, and what could be more relevant than Thanksgiving – the starting topic. You get to ask local chefs how to solve your problems, or get ideas for new side dishes, or alternatives to turkey, or doing something healthy. Avoid that dry turkey this thanksgiving, or try something new. Have fun.

Get a personal book recommendation from an expert

Paul Constant, famed book critic of The Stranger, has said that he will happily give people personal book recommendations. Tell him what you like (and don’t) and he will tell you what to get next. He spent a lot of time doing this in his previous bookstore career so he’s a veteran. Summer reading time is upon us… enjoy.

Ask him and/or the Questionland community at The Stranger.

Ask Me Anything

Adding comments to your blog or article suddenly changes the one-way world of publishing into an interactive two-way communication. Very cool. But sometimes your readers just want to be able to ask you a question either because they need help on a topic or because they want to get to know you a little better.

We’ve made this possible by letting your readers “interview” you through our Ask Me Anything application. You can see it and try on this blog. The link is on the right. Just click YOU – Ask Me Anything and you can see other questions I was asked and then ask your own.

Note: You can reject question you don’t want to answer.

Talk to the newsroom

The New York Times provides a great example of the use of online Q&A with their staff in their Talk to the Newsroom section. Readers are given the opportunity to ask a given staff member questions over a period of a few days and the staff member answers the questions as they come in (more or less).

It’s a good example of Newpapers/website editors interacting directly with their readership which in turn furthers the goal of transparency. The New York Times continues to try out new things and can be more cutting edge than many of their more recent web-only competition.

Have you seen other examples of this? Let me know in the comments.