At 12:00 Eastern Time when Barack Obama officially became the President of the United States of America (by rule of the Constitution), Whitehouse.gov transformed into its new version. And it’s got a heavy emphasis on new media.
A blog post at the site from the White House Director of New Media, Macon Phillips describes some of the changes. He says the site will focus on three priorities:
– Communication
– Transparency
– Participation
Sounds like the key ingredients to new media best practices to me. The site will feature “timely and in-depth” content along with RSS feeds for the blog, agenda articles, the press office, OMB news, photo gallery, and videos (email updates are also available).
With regards to transparency, Phillips notes that Obama intends to make his administration the most transparent in history. “The President’s executive orders and proclamations will be published for everyone to review, and that’s just the beginning of our efforts to provide a window for all Americans into the business of the government. You can also learn about some of the senior leadership in the new administration and about the President’s policy priorities,” he says.
And when it comes to participation, all “non-emergency” legislation will be posted to the site for five days, giving citizens a chance to leave feedback before the President signs it.
Phillips notes that he is just one of the people that will be contributing to the White House Blog. It will be interesting to see who we get posts from. I would not be surprised to see the President himself post there from time to time.
