Scripting News: The White House website (Scripting News)
Zacqary Adam Green
· 11 months ago
Maybe I've just read one too many YouTube comments, but something tells me that putting a social network on Whitehouse.gov is not a very good idea.
mattsurfs
· 11 months ago
I emphatically agree! In fact, I almost feel let down, or a promise has been broken. I thought this presidency was going to be innovative, efficient, and modern.
I appreciate them updating the site right noon and all, but when it comes down to it, there's got to be more than just YouTube channel and collection ghost bloggers.
Alexander Horre
· 11 months ago
The change from change.gov to whitehouse.gov was a major step backwards.
Chris
· 11 months ago
True. But remember, When in Rome do as Rome wasn't built in a day. :-)
blah
· 11 months ago
Uhh, the quote is "When in Rome do as Romans do." You just SarahPalin'd two quotes there buddy. Anyhow, I don't see how that quote is a logical reply.
I am of course familiar with this concept, but I've never heard it so nicely expressed. I'll be using that in the future.
(And I agree with everything else you said there!)
Joe Knapp
· 11 months ago
"I do want the White House to be a public space, where new thinking from all over the world meets other new thinking. A flow distributor. A two-way briefing book for the people and the government."
Is that different from a blogging or forum site? Could you be more specific?
Matthew Mizzi
· 11 months ago
I agree. The White House web-site should also combine use of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
If the new adminstration is to keep its trust ratings high then it should seek to be present in all areas of social activity - including online social platforms.
When blogging on finance and economy I notice that there's a great deal of communication missing. It's as if small and medium sized enterprises are feeling helpless in front of the proportions of this crisis. So, a web site like whitehouse.gov could be a social portal for owners of small and medium-sized business to interact with each other and with the new adminsitration in the formulation of new policy.
While i agree in principle that "The White House should send us to places where our minds will be nourished with new ideas, perspectives, places, points of view, things to do, ways we can make a difference. It must take risks..." that last part gives me pause. What kinds of risks? Should site link with, say, aljazeera.com where a visitor may encounter hate speech in a chat room? Then, who will vet these risky sites, and deal with the blowback and so forth. smithsonian.com is one thing, risky links are another.
As potus discovered with his blackberry, there are implications when the president tries to communicate in ways we take for granted. i think whitehouse.gov is a glass half full.
I'm not interested in a "White House blog" unless it's written by Barack Obama.
Why shouldn't it be? He's a great writer; he'd be a natural for the medium. It'd be the 21st century equivalent of FDR's "fireside chats".
FDR could have hired a "radio guy" from one of the networks to do his chats, just like clueless people today hire "tech guys" to write their blogs. But he didn't. He used the medium as a platform for his own voice. Obama could do the same with his blog. But he's not.
The only objection I've heard to this is that "the President is too busy to blog every day!", to which I say, so what? Don't blog every day then. Blog only when you have something to say. FDR didn't hit the radio every night either. I guarantee you that even if his blog was only updated once a year millions and millions would still read it. I know I would.
Eventually we will have a President who thinks about the Web this way. But it's not going to be Obama.
What about it? It's just links to press releases, videos, etc. available on other White House sites. And you know that Obama's not Twittering his way through his Cabinet meetings.
Personally I would value a Presidential blog more than a Presidential Twitter because a) it would give him more room to lay out arguments and positions in detail and b) it's not tied to the fate of any particular commercial vendor.
I was watching some PBS show on Nixon recently... they showed all these stacks of what did they call them - telegrams or something that were sent in like for or against Nixon regarding Watergate or something. I don't want my tweet, blog comment, vote - whatever, just stacked up and tossed away.
We need to build up a database of real issues, user stories, experiments regarding what works and what doesn't so future generations and administrations can make informed decisions backed up with evidence. As abysmal as Bush may have been he probably takes with him some insights lost forever. I can forgive Obama some mistakes if they actually turn out to be failed experiments henceforth avoidable.
We need someplace we can see the impact of legislation. Like person A had to forgo a 3 month trip to the Bahamas when their options expired while person B fell ill and her small employer was pressured by its insurance company to 'get rid' of her. I think we could quickly grok things better through the use of stories. It worked for Aristotle, Jesus, Confucius, Newton, Nietzsche, Lao-Tzu, Poe, Apple, Anakin Skywalker, Tweetdeck, space exploration and Everybody Poops.
Do blogs, tweets, websites accomplish this now? A little, but we've seen they will adopt what we build. Isn't it left as an exercise to us, the reader, to give @misterpresident what he needs - more tools than just a hammer? Isn't that what he's trying to tell us? (It's funnier when you realize http://twitter.com/misterpresident is a dog)
sameasiteverwas
· 11 months ago
I was watching some PBS show on Nixon recently... they showed all these stacks of what did they call them - telegrams or something...
I now officially feel old.
Shava Nerad
· 11 months ago
The transition team had $12M and 450 people for 2 months to get ready to run a very large country. I would not be so sure that what you see today is the end product of a thoughtful and thorough online strategy, so much as it's a signal of some things to come.
Why not be grateful for the (cc) statement, the two line robots.txt file, and various hopeful signs, and assume that just maybe getting the team up to speed on the economic and war and foreign policy areas was just a little more important than the most kick ass final product of a whitehouse.gov.
I have to say, this is the most promising whitehouse.gov *debut* we've seen. Don't kill the administration by expecting sainthood in every endeavor.
dave
· 11 months ago
Wrong. This is my country. I'm not in the audience. You don't understand the web and you don't understand the United States.
The new White House Web site unveiled Tuesday by President Barack Obama's administration announces that "Change has Come to America." It also criticizes former-President Bush's failed response to Hurricane Katrina and makes a strong statement of support for rebuilding the region.
marshal sandler
· 11 months ago
Yes to this is my land !
arthur goodfriend
· 11 months ago
An interesting glimpse into the technological and generatonal black hole that characterizes Obama's inherited White House communications architecture. I suspect that this will take more than just a few days to shake out. A national CTO anyone ? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...
dave
· 11 months ago
I read that piece too. It was really interesting.
J P Jarl
· 11 months ago
President Obamas descision to close down the horrible jail on Cuba and restrict the use of torture is news from God.
"Two years after launching the most technologically savvy presidential campaign in history, Obama officials ran smack into the constraints of the federal bureaucracy yesterday, encountering a jumble of disconnected phone lines, old computer software, and security regulations forbidding outside e-mail accounts."
Patrick
· 11 months ago
For a variety of reasons, most all government sites are not permitted to link out. It begs a bunch of questions if they started. Hosting/moderating a forum might be possible. Inviting in leaders would be possible, but they already have their 'team' on the grounds doing that. Are they going to be smart enough to do both?
All Comments
I appreciate them updating the site right noon and all, but when it comes down to it, there's got to be more than just YouTube channel and collection ghost bloggers.
I am of course familiar with this concept, but I've never heard it so nicely expressed. I'll be using that in the future.
(And I agree with everything else you said there!)
Is that different from a blogging or forum site? Could you be more specific?
If the new adminstration is to keep its trust ratings high then it should seek to be present in all areas of social activity - including online social platforms.
When blogging on finance and economy I notice that there's a great deal of communication missing. It's as if small and medium sized enterprises are feeling helpless in front of the proportions of this crisis. So, a web site like whitehouse.gov could be a social portal for owners of small and medium-sized business to interact with each other and with the new adminsitration in the formulation of new policy.
As potus discovered with his blackberry, there are implications when the president tries to communicate in ways we take for granted. i think whitehouse.gov is a glass half full.
Why shouldn't it be? He's a great writer; he'd be a natural for the medium. It'd be the 21st century equivalent of FDR's "fireside chats".
FDR could have hired a "radio guy" from one of the networks to do his chats, just like clueless people today hire "tech guys" to write their blogs. But he didn't. He used the medium as a platform for his own voice. Obama could do the same with his blog. But he's not.
The only objection I've heard to this is that "the President is too busy to blog every day!", to which I say, so what? Don't blog every day then. Blog only when you have something to say. FDR didn't hit the radio every night either. I guarantee you that even if his blog was only updated once a year millions and millions would still read it. I know I would.
Eventually we will have a President who thinks about the Web this way. But it's not going to be Obama.
Personally I would value a Presidential blog more than a Presidential Twitter because a) it would give him more room to lay out arguments and positions in detail and b) it's not tied to the fate of any particular commercial vendor.
Talk to them.
Close Guantanamo draft order, via ACLU --> http://is.gd/gMwK
We need to build up a database of real issues, user stories, experiments regarding what works and what doesn't so future generations and administrations can make informed decisions backed up with evidence. As abysmal as Bush may have been he probably takes with him some insights lost forever. I can forgive Obama some mistakes if they actually turn out to be failed experiments henceforth avoidable.
We need someplace we can see the impact of legislation. Like person A had to forgo a 3 month trip to the Bahamas when their options expired while person B fell ill and her small employer was pressured by its insurance company to 'get rid' of her. I think we could quickly grok things better through the use of stories. It worked for Aristotle, Jesus, Confucius, Newton, Nietzsche, Lao-Tzu, Poe, Apple, Anakin Skywalker, Tweetdeck, space exploration and Everybody Poops.
Do blogs, tweets, websites accomplish this now? A little, but we've seen they will adopt what we build. Isn't it left as an exercise to us, the reader, to give @misterpresident what he needs - more tools than just a hammer? Isn't that what he's trying to tell us? (It's funnier when you realize http://twitter.com/misterpresident is a dog)
I now officially feel old.
Why not be grateful for the (cc) statement, the two line robots.txt file, and various hopeful signs, and assume that just maybe getting the team up to speed on the economic and war and foreign policy areas was just a little more important than the most kick ass final product of a whitehouse.gov.
I have to say, this is the most promising whitehouse.gov *debut* we've seen. Don't kill the administration by expecting sainthood in every endeavor.
web and you don't understand the United States.
The new White House Web site unveiled Tuesday by President Barack Obama's administration announces that "Change has Come to America." It also criticizes former-President Bush's failed response to Hurricane Katrina and makes a strong statement of support for rebuilding the region.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...
"Two years after launching the most technologically savvy presidential campaign in history, Obama officials ran smack into the constraints of the federal bureaucracy yesterday, encountering a jumble of disconnected phone lines, old computer software, and security regulations forbidding outside e-mail accounts."
Hosting/moderating a forum might be possible. Inviting in leaders would be possible, but they already have their 'team' on the grounds doing that. Are they going to be smart enough to do both?