White House 2.0

Last Friday, the White House announced in its official blog, that is expanding how the Administration is communicating with the American people, creating profiles in the three of the most important social networking sites: Facebook, Myspace and Twitter.

According the post of White House’s official blog:
“In the President’s last Weekly Address, he called on government to "recognize that we cannot meet the challenges of today with old habits and stale thinking." He added that "we need to reform our government so that it is more efficient, more transparent, and more creative," and pledged to "reach beyond the halls of government" to engage the public. Today the White House is taking steps to expand how the Administration is communicating with the public, including the latest information and guidance about the H1N1 virus.

Technology has profoundly impacted how – and where – we all consume information and communicate with one another. WhiteHouse.gov is an important part of the Administration’s effort to use the internet to reach the public quickly and effectively – but it isn’t the only place.

There’s a lot to talk about right now. From an economic crisis to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the President and his Administration have a full plate – not the least of which is making sure the public stays up-to-date and involved in our efforts.”

The White House already had profiles in other sites: Flickr, Vimeo, YouTube and iTunes (videos & podcasts).

The president Barack Obama used quite a lot of the social networking during his election campaign, and it is a good initiative to continue their use to communicate with the American people.

Change.gov Becomes Whitehouse.gov

Yesterday was the inauguration of President Barack Obama, and Tim O'Reilly wrote a post in his blog, O'Reilly Radar, called Change.gov Becomes Whitehouse.gov, where he told Barack Obama's administration will continue with their internet directions used during the election campaign.

He said: "For those of us in tech, this is an amazing affirmation. Not only did the Web 2.0 principles of user-engagement, viral outreach, rapid development, and real-time intelligence help Obama to win the presidency, he's bringing the same principles and the same team to manage his outreach during his time in office.

This is an amazing moment for anyone involved with Web 2.0. There's a long road ahead, but it's clear that many of the lessons that were learned first on the consumer internet are now being applied to much harder, more serious problems.

One of the things that excites me the most is the way that the new administration is reaching out to small companies rather than to the normal behemoths who bid on government contracts."

He considers his favorite bit from the announcement on WhiteHouse.gov:

"President Obama started his career as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, where he saw firsthand what people can do when they come together for a common cause. Citizen participation will be a priority for the Administration, and the internet will play an important role in that. One significant addition to WhiteHouse.gov reflects a campaign promise from the President: we will publish all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days, and allow the public to review and comment before the President signs it."

Technology and the US election

Don Tapscott published a short but nice post in Wikinomics (his blog that has the same name of his book), about the impact of social networks and new web 2.0 technologies on this year’s US Presidential election. He said Obama embraced social networks like no other candidate in an attempt to connect with young voters and build transparency and a real sense of community action into his candidacy.

He also mentioned the web site VoteforChange.com, created by Obama's campaign to encourage people to get out and vote. According Tapscott, the site does three things:
- It helps young people register to vote regardless of who they are voting for.
- It’s the first initiative of it’s kind to make an antiquated process more web friendly, and the interface is intuitive and easy to use.
- It educates young voters about their polling locations and helps then understand and get involved.

He concluded the post: "Obama isn’t explicitly telling people that he has the best value out there - he’s simply providing a trusted source of information. One more example of how he’s tapping the web 2.0 to show what he’s all about."

I think Obama has been well advised for a competent staff that realize the importance of social networks and new web 2.0 technologies nowadays.

I wrote a previous post about this subject, called The use of social networking strategy in an election campaign.

For those interested in social networks and new web 2.0 technologies, Don Tapscott wrote an excellent book, with Anthony D. Williams:

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything

The Presidential Election Dashboard

The iDashboards is using an interesting way to do advertising of its products. After the dashboard for the 2008 Olympics Games (I wrote a post about that), they created The Presidential Election Dashboard, a dashboard to follow the 2008 US Presidential election.

It is a very interesting approach, because they are using a subject that everyone knows about, to demonstrate its dashboard capabilities.

The use of social networking strategy in an election campaign

The TechnologyReview published an article about the use of social networking strategy by Barack Obama, called How Obama Really Did It, written by David Talbot, Technology Review's Chief Correspondent.

Very interesting article.