November 7th, 2008
WhiteHouse.gov will never be the same
The Obama family and friends on Election Night, from Flickr
As I noted in ‘The Connected President’, this will be the most Web-centric administration ever. The Washington Times calls it “a YouTube presidency,” noting the president-elect has already launched Change.gov.
Among the features of Change.gov, which includes many of the previously posted policy positions, are a blog, YouTube videos and web forms for citizens to share stories and visions. There’s no clear indication of where this all is heading but it seems clear that the public affairs department of the new White House is going to be a Web 2.0 affair.
The Web address won’t change, but WhiteHouse.gov will never look the same. …When the Illinois Democrat takes the oath of office Jan. 20, WhiteHouse.gov is likely to get a complete makeover in the style of Change.gov and the campaign site BarackObama.com.
Another sign of WhiteHouse 2.0: The Guardian reports that Obama has posted intimate photos, taken by official campaign photog David Katz, on Flickr.
“The most interesting thing to watch will be what do they and how do they reinvent the way a president speaks to the American people,” said Simon Rosenberg of the liberal think tank NDN and a veteran of the Clinton White House.
“There’s no doubt this is going to be more of a YouTube presidency than a fireside chat presidency,” he said. “President Obama will be reinventing the relationship between the president and the American people using these new tools.”
Another aspect of the YouTube presidency will be extra attention paid to global communications. Rosenberg said the White House would not only release Web videos in English but would translate them into Mandarin, Spanish, Farsi and Arabic.
He can redefine how a president speaks to the world.
