What can you learn on GHOA?

Quite obviously, Derek and I are big proponents of Google Hangout On Air (GHOA). GHOA was used as the platform that for the inaugural CMEpalooza in the spring and will be used in for CMEpalooza Fall on October 15. And yet I don’t get the sense that many people have a very good sense of all that is offered that may be of both personal and professional interest on GHOA. That will hopefully soon be changing, as I am giving a talk about GHOA in October at the annual meeting of the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA), with additional talks from Derek and I hopefully coming up soon as well.

At any given moment, there are dozens of different live broadcasts open to the world. Even without searching, I am quite sure you would be able to get amateur World Cup analysis from nearly every country in the world every day this week. But if that’s not your cup of tea…

• On Tuesday, June 24, at 1 p.m. ET, bestselling authors Malcolm Gladwell and Bishop T.D. Jakes get together to talk about obstacles in life and how they are best overcome.

• On Friday, June 27, at noon, you can learn what search engine optimization is and how to do it with the gang from GoDaddy.

• Here is a Hangout from April 10 on the use of social media in medicine that was moderated by Neil Mehta, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic.

And that is just scratching the surface. President Obama has been a Hangout guest several times, and there are often entertainment icons who regularly show up. I haven’t figured out an easy way to get a schedule of more than the 5-6 upcoming Hangouts that Google promotes, but I am sure there is a filter out there somewhere. As with everything new on the Internet, it just takes some figuring out.