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New Presidential Web Site Touts Communication, Transparency and Participation

By: Justin Lopinot | 01/22/2009

Online communications played huge roles for both sides in last year's presidential election. And now that Barrack Obama has been sworn in (twice!) as president, one of his staff's first moves was to revamp the official presidential Web site, http://www.whitehouse.gov.

According to a recent blog post by Macon Phillips, director of new media for the White House, the site will allow the president and his administration to connect with people by centering on three priorities: communication, transparency and participation. One can subscribe to RSS feeds, review legislation before it's signed into law or even watch the president's weekly video address. Away from the site, people can get updates from the president via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and surely other means of which I'm not even aware.

I like the idea of lifting the veil of secrecy that seems to infiltrate everyone from government officials to local business leaders. This new Web site and other social media efforts seem like great platforms for this administration to connect with the people of the world.

However, I wonder if there are any dangers to unleashing so much information on the public. What will we be talking about in two, three or four years as it pertains to this administration's online endeavors?

Do you think this transparency could backfire for the president? Or do you think it's not enough, in which case what else do you think Obama's team could do to increase the government's transparency?

Posted in Digital Communications