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Change.gov and the Coming of Government 2.0

Mon, November 10th, 2008 by Tom Cochran | 0 comments

Change is coming to Washington. The Obama administration is looking to move American government into the 21st century and has already taken the first steps by launching its transition website Change.gov.

The site continues the same groundbreaking grassroots strategies that propelled the Obama campaign through the longest and most expensive campaign season in history. Barack, the candidate, asked for your help through donations. Barack, the President-Elect, is asking you to participate in America by sharing what the campaign meant to you, and what your vision is for our country. Hopefully, this is a window into how participatory government will begin to operate under our new administration, encouraging public input.

The Obama transition team includes some prominent people from the technology industry, notably Julius Genachowski from media conglomerate IAC/InterActiveCorp and Sonal Shah from Google’s philanthropy division, Google.org. Intellectual, technocentric individuals like these could help open government and give Americans a greater opportunity to use technology to elevate their voices in the debates ahead. In the Washington Post, Google’s Washington counsel, Rick Whitt described Genachowski as a “true believer in the power of technology to change lives.” In the same way technology fueled Obama’s 2008 campaign, it might now be applied to the way our government operates.

A number of the issues advanced on BarackObama.com recommend technological solutions to streamline government:

• Sunlight Before Signing: As president, Obama says he will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.
• Google for Government: Barack Obama and Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) passed a law to create a Google-like search engine to allow regular people to approximately track federal grants, contracts, earmarks, and loans online.
• Hold 21st Century Fireside Chats: Obama has proposed that his Cabinet officials will have periodic national broadband townhall meetings to discuss issues before their agencies.
• Conduct Regulatory Agency Business in Public: Obama will require his appointees who lead the executive branch departments and rulemaking agencies to conduct the significant business of the agency in public, so that any citizen can see in person or watch on the Internet these debates.

If successful, these solutions could guide America towards a more open and efficient 21st century government. It’s a government that will undoubtedly encourage grassroots, inclusive communications, and potentially move America toward greater transparency. Change at Internet speed? It sounds like Government 2.0.

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