Change.Gov

Respected colleague Josh Bernoff asks Barack Obama, will you tap the groundswell?

I just learned that Obama and Biden have launched this website called change.gov that transparently puts forth agenda items, a blog introducing latest videos, as well as a web form to submit your American ideas. The site is more one way in communication –there’s not a lot of places to leave your own comments– but based upon the promises he’s made for collaborative technology, we could expect a “Digg” like feature to emerge at some point, the challenge will be managing logins, detractors, and identity issues. Of course, any website of this caliber that offers an online dialog is going to be overloaded with comments, perhaps some type of way to login with a unique ID will appear.

The ideas that are submitted (citizen visions) will likely enter a database, filtering out patterns will be quite the task for the web management team. So there are still quite a few challenges this site is going to have, it may not be two way communication in a way that we’re used to for some time but it’s a start, and a dang good one. David Plouffe, Obama’s campaign manager (as I learned from Eric) apparently is one that is spearheading some of these efforts.

I certainly hope the Obama administration applies for next year’s Groundswell awards , they’d be a fantastic case study of how institutions are embracing social technologies to connect with people. It’s really hard for anyone to be a nay-sayers about the adoption of these tools now, if the big ol’ government can start to connect with people, corporations can too.

27 Replies to “Change.Gov”

  2. I take issue with this. We have this garbage in the UK, something that was originally called The Big Conversation… plus we have Number 10 petitions galore. I can promise you that after 10 years – and right from the word Go – not the slightest bit of attention is paid to any of it. I imagine one poor person sits and goes through it all, dutifully makes notes, and produces a weekly report that gets filed in the trash.

  3. It dawn upon me as to how you will find moneys after Jan 20, 09 for the needs of this great country of ours, here are two ideas;

    1.Cut the defense budet and put the extra moneys to something of importance other than Iraq.

    2.Cut even deeper the space program which in my veiw has done nothing of importance for us over the decades. Both of these would free up trillions of dollars.

    Thank you,

    Richard Bach

  4. Thought I’d take a look at change.gov. Turned out to be about what I expected. Democrats and especially Obamma need to understand that Obamma is NOT the president of the United States. That won’t happen for a couple of months yet. AFTER his inauguration he can start making demands, until then, BACK OFF! There is plenty of time after January for him to discover what he doesn’t know how to handle and what promises he can’t keep and there will be plenty. Making speaches was easy. Reality will be a shock! He bought the office. He can’t buy success.

  6. To The Beloved President Elect Barrack Obama I would love being on your security staff I am currently 52 years of age with a pryor law enforcement background and would take pride in working for you on any level I never wrote to an official before…. So i would like to ask you Mr. President Elect if you can send me the particulars on how I can get started. I deeply appreciate your time in reading this request. Yours Truely Sylvester P Coleman

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