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January 20, 2009

President Obama brings White House into 21st Century

Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House, kicks off President Obama's shiny new blog.

Welcome to the new WhiteHouse.gov. I'm Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House and one of the people who will be contributing to the blog.

A short time ago, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States and his new administration officially came to life. One of the first changes is the White House's new website, which will serve as a place for the President and his administration to connect with the rest of the nation and the world.

Millions of Americans have powered President Obama's journey to the White House, many taking advantage of the internet to play a role in shaping our country's future. WhiteHouse.gov is just the beginning of the new administration's efforts to expand and deepen this online engagement.

Just like your new government, WhiteHouse.gov and the rest of the Administration's online programs will put citizens first. Our initial new media efforts will center around three priorities:

Read the rest via the link above or check out the main page here: Official White House Blog.

And of course it's been added to the blogroll on your right.

I've been hoping that Senator Merkley would continue to make use of the New Media, which is why we still have his campaign widget on the left-hand sidebar. So far they've only used it a few times and not at all since early December. I've tried to encourage them to make more use of it via the few tenuous contacts I have with his staff. But so far I've not had much of any reaction or even aknowledgement of the suggestion. C'est la vie.

I know that the New Media is something of an unknown and his senior staffers are probably leary of veering off the beaten path - an assumption reinforced by the lack of new Media activity once he started hiring new staffers. Which is a shame because they could have framed the Senator as savvy and even a bit ahead of the curve. But hopefully they will take courage and at least follow President Obama's lead...

Posted by Kevin at January 20, 2009 02:46 PM