If you’re interested in the State of the Union Address, it will be given on Tuesday January 24th at 9 pm eastern time. For those who are not really sure what the ‘address’ really is, I’ll summarize for you. Annually (once a year) the President of the United States is responsible for filling in Congress about the state of affairs in this nation. At this time he will also inform congress about his plans for legislation (consideration of new laws or potential laws) in the upcoming year.

Article II, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution:

“ He shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. ”

This years State of the Union is going to be a little bit different than it has been in the past. Via some new technology and work from the Participatory Culture Foundation, the Address will reach a significantly larger audience.

As soon as the Barack Obama’s words leave his mouth participant’s will begin the work of transcribing them into dozens of different languages and making it possible for people all over the globe to understand and react to the speech. brought to life by new technology from Mozilla, the president will open, a sort of, interactive online forum with his address.

All of this kicks off something called “Open Election 2012” sponsored by Mozilla, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, PBS News Hour, and the Participatory Culture Foundation. The Goal of these organizations is to unite their resources to bring broader, more clearly understood coverage of the upcoming election campaigns and to make participation possible for people all over the globe. It’s going to become an interactive event.