If you have a television and you're a civic-minded sort, yous probably plonked down in forepart of CNN (or the networks, or Fox, or the like) terminal night and watched President Obama's State of the Union address (and the Republican response, or maybe even the Tea Political party response) old-school mode–on the puppet tube with a remote in one manus and a beer in the other.

Merely if TV was your just game last night, you missed out. The existent party was online. Information technology was a massive sit-in of how the conversation in politics is shifting, from a one-way matter controlled jointly past politicans and the media, to both a two-way dialogue between pols and constituents and a many-to-many gratuitous-for-all betwixt whatsoever and all who care to dive in.

Hither'south a sampling of what went on.

Both C-Span and PBS's News 60 minutes circulate the addresses over the Internet—C-Span via its Facebook folio, and PBS via Ustream.

The broadcasts themselves were probably the aforementioned as what appeared on Tv set, just as with any such events over the Cyberspace these days, the livestreams included places for viewers to annotate, via Twitter, Facebook, or other social networks. That was interesting, but even more interesting was…

… the White House'southward website. Obama'southward squad apparently realizes information technology's a PowerPoint world, and that means charts and data and URLs and pictures. The guardians of tradition would probably keel over if Obama were to walk up to the podium in the House of Representatives and, Ross Perot-like, pull out a slide deck. But online he can do just that. Or rather his squad tin can. And they did. Aslope video of the President speaking, the site matched the President's words with data and images on everything from make clean energy plans, schoolhouse performance, and the land's gross domestic product to how regulation of salmon were divided up among two authorities departments (meridian).

Also, online? Fact-checking. Traditionally, we've had to look for the networks' post-game shows before anyone starts to dissect the accuracy of various statements made by the president or the opposition. Only last night, the Sunlight Foundation—in partnership with The Huffington Post, National Periodical, CQ Ringlet Call, and the Center for Public Integrity—posted real-time fact-checking during the course of the addresses. Also doing fact-checking was…

… Speaker of the House John Boehner's press team, who live-blogged the event with a serial of posts title "SOTU FACT", in which they deconstructed various of Obama'south claims.

Merely the real political party was on Twitter. #SOTU, #StateoftheUnion and "Matrimony Address" all zoomed to the top of Trending Topics, and for well-nigh an hour, many Twitter users' feeds were bursting with political commentary.

It was like beingness in the eye of a wild, raucus, smart, and funny party. And so much and so that some didn't desire it to terminate.

For entertainment value, comedian Andy Borowitz and recently departed MSNBC host Keith Olbermann tossed out incessant zingers eventually launching into a two-way #twitterwar.

The unwashed masses weren't the only ones tweeting. Plainly some of the Senators and Congressmen kept up the patter during the President's speech, equally did…

… the President himself.

(Of form, it'south clear someone on the President'southward staff was tweeting on his behalf, as Obama did not appear to have his notorious BlackBerry in hand equally he spoke to the nation. Simply information technology's possible Rep. Paul Broun, of Georgia, was in fact tapping away from the House floor–he certainly seemed to indicate he would in a tweet earlier Tuesday.)

Following the State of the Marriage, diverse members of the President's policy teams participated in a live online console, taking questions via Twitter and Facebook…

… equally well every bit from a small live audience—with Harold and Kumar actor (and sometime White House Office of Public Engagement staffer) Kalpen Modi (better known as "Kal Penn") managing the mike.

The White House console really started during the Republican response, which seemed a bit disrespectful, merely it was too symbolic of the fact that, given that nosotros're no longer leap by a unmarried channel of communication, events no longer have to unfold in a single chronological progression.

The Republican response for its part was circulate online via C-SPAN, PBS, and Boehner'southward Facebook page.

Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann also gave a response on behalf the Tea Party. But while her speech was circulate on CNN and other television channels, it didn't seem to go far online. (Information technology may have been meant to become out over the Tea Party Limited website, but the video feed in that location didn't seem to be working.)

Meanwhile, Republicans matched the White House'south social-cyberspace-savvy past lining up a passel of representatives, including Peter Roskam, of Illinois (below), to record video responses to tweets from regular folks, and posting them on Business firm Majority Leader Eric Cantor's YouTube channel (a la Old Spice Guy, minus the towel).

Had enough yet? Hope not, because in that location's more. Thinking out of the box, the White Firm is turning the State of the Spousal relationship into a four-day affair. Sure, when yous take to rely on television for distribution, all you can await them to fork over is a single evening. But if you've got a straight line to the people, as yous do with the Interwebs, you lot can keep the party going as long as yous'd similar. For a consummate listing of events the White Business firm has planned over the coming days, see the Land of the Union folio on whitehouse.gov.

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E.B. Boyd is FastCompany.com's Silicon Valley reporter. Follow me on Twitter, or e-mail me.