Scripting News - Latest Comments in The White House website (Scripting News)

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

Patrick — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:01:12 -0000

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?

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

Blacknox — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 23:14:28 -0000

Hmmm....
http://www.washingtonpost.c...

"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."

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

J P Jarl — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:02:16 -0000

President Obamas descision to close down the horrible jail on Cuba and restrict the use of torture is news from God.

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

arthur goodfriend — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:52:34 -0000

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.c...

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

sameasiteverwas — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:35:25 -0000

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.

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

dave — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:03:25 -0000

I read that piece too. It was really interesting.

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

marshal sandler — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 09:56:09 -0000

Yes to this is my land !

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

Blacknox — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 08:42:52 -0000

Another view point

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.

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

Shava Nerad — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:25:18 -0000

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.

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

malatmals — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:11:31 -0000

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/misterpr... is a dog)

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

dave — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:57:14 -0000

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.

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

vruz — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:28:34 -0000

breaking news:

Close Guantanamo draft order, via ACLU --> http://is.gd/gMwK

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:31:24 -0000

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.

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

blah — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:30:52 -0000

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.

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

dave — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:48:29 -0000

He was trying to make a joke, butthead. :-)

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

jfobes — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:01:49 -0000

We want more (detail on what you want on whitehouse.gov). Enough is not enough!

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

justcorbly — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 12:50:42 -0000

From the bottom of the site: comments@whitehouse.gov.

Talk to them.

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

sameasiteverwas — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 12:44:45 -0000

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.

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

Chris — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 12:19:45 -0000

True. But remember, When in Rome do as Rome wasn't built in a day. :-)

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

Chris — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 11:47:40 -0000

What about http://twitter.com/thewhite... ?

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

sameasiteverwas — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 11:35:22 -0000

In fairness to Obama, he appears to be pushing the old Presidential Radio Address in this direction, making it a Web video instead. But that's still one way, and a blog would give the President a platform to engage with the populace that canned video does not.

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

sameasiteverwas — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 11:23:34 -0000

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.

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

dave — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:28:34 -0000

I totally agree. You nailed it.

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

Aziz Poonawalla — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:19:56 -0000

I have to disagree with you - I think the site does serve as the two-way briefing book you describe, or at least it will if they live up to what they promise in the first post.

Re: The White House website (Scripting News)

Andrew Frank — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:43:03 -0000

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.