Several stories have caught my intention of late. We all know, of course, that the proliferation of computers, and especially the Internet, has changed the way we communicate, shop, talk, think, and research. What’s interesting to me is the trickle-up trends that have been occurring more recently. Old and stalwart institutions are often the slowest to change and embrace new technology, and often for good reasons, but two stories indicate that those days are over.
The first involves the Pope. More particularly, the Pope’s new You Tube channel.
The second is more complicated (and therefore interesting) due to security issues. The Obama administration is changing the way the government uses technology. There are quite a few indicators here.
- First, Obama will be getting his Blackberry, despite initial security concerns.
- The official site of the White House has received a significant upgrade, and a good web designer has apparently taken the lead on this one. Finally, pictures of people (one in particular, of course). That’s a pretty firm rule in web development—include pictures of faces. Many churches could benefit from this one—people care more about your people than your building! Of course my site breaks that rule…
- news.USA.gov now has an RSS feed. I’m a big believer in RSS as it helps all of us keep updated without having to constantly visit individual web sites. (If you need a good RSS reader, consider Google Reader).
- Apparently many in Obama’s administration are upset about the suspicious lack of Apple products at the White House.
- Most importantly as far as I’m concerned, Obama is looking into Open Source software as a possibility for government agencies.
All in all, an interesting trend!
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The style of the new White House is fine, but the content, and approach doesn't do much for me.
For example, President Bush's White House, while not as pretty, had a lot more slots for content. Press conferences were transcribed within a hour or two and put up in text form. No press conference information on the new site.
To be honest with you, the new WH site resembles more of a campaign site than a government site.
For comparisons see here: http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/index….
FWIW, more secure government agencies, like the Defense Department, use Open Source software for more critical functions. From a government procurement standpoint, the idea that he is considering mandating new software would be a nightmare for the General Accounting Office, similar to the auto regulation executive order he signed the other day which has a lot of consequences that aren't so nice.
I'll stop before I'm branded as not being for hope and change.
I definitely agree that it looks like a campaign site. The predominance of Obama pictures is proof enough of that.