I get personal emails from Al Gore. Me and the millions of other people who have had dealings with him, but he writes his emails like they are right to you, so it feels nice. Anyway here is the latest one I got from him.

“Dear Shane,

Current, the media company I co-founded six years ago with my partner Joel Hyatt, just last week launched a new web site that integrates television and the Web in an unprecedented way. It provides, as never before, a platform for citizens to make the media their own.

One of the features I’m most excited about on Current.com is called Viewpoints. Viewpoints is a virtual town hall where you can share your opinions, in video, about the issues that matter in the 2008 election: from global warming to government eavesdropping, and many more.

This digital town hall is already bustling, and you can find viewpoints from me and from a lot of people, including the candidates running for President. Come and listen to their positions and, more importantly, tell them and the rest of the world what you think!

Since Viewpoints is the only place on the Web where you can easily share your view in video, my hope is that you’ll take this opportunity to go toe-to-toe with the pundits on TV and help contribute to a new platform for public discourse. All it takes is a webcam and 60 seconds.

And, since we’ll be taking the most popular and most compelling viewpoints and airing them on Current TV — now available in 52 million homes around the world — you may very well get your voice heard on our global TV network.

I look forward to seeing and hearing you on Current.com, as we deepen the discussion on these important topics:

Thank you,

Al Gore”

Isn’t that sweet.

Alright Al, I’ll bite. I gave the site a look. My first impression was “gaaaahhh flash!” but at least the interface is well thought out. Basically it is a sort of opinion based youtube/digg hybrid. You post a video with your opinion, and then people vote on it. I thought it was kind of cool the way that when you held your mouse over the windows it told you how many voted for or against that opinion. Holding your mouse over the faces also produces little check marks or X’s float around their picture the size and number of x’s and checks is dependent on the votes.

The site seems to lean a bit to the left (which is fine by me), as the people with more conservative/religious views are less supported by the voters in general. But most of these polls have less than 100 votes, so it is far from clear how they will turn out after a couple thousand people vote on them.

It looks pretty interesting, and after a couple second I even was able to get over the fact thats its all flash (why Al, why?!). Stop by, vote on a which opinion you agree with, and maybe even leave a couple of your own. I could see something like this become a pretty interesting and useful tool for civic engagement and discussion.