Cartoon of the Day

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Catoon of the Day

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Obama administration rolls out 'IT Dashboard'

Looks really cool, but it's over my head. You can find it here.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Obama administration is launching an "IT Dashboard" that increases access to information about the federal government's information technology spending and investment.

Using charts and graphs, the new dashboard displays IT information by federal agency or department. Users can also share or embed the charts on their own Web sites or blogs or on social sites including Facebook, Twitter, and delicious.

The dashboard also allows users to compile their own datasets based on the information available on the site. Once compiled, users can export their custom datasets as spreadsheets or receive the same information as an RSS feed.

Cartoon of the Day

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Video- Online digital memorial to troops

Competing sad vs cool.

Eric Cantor reveals his not-tech-savviness

By GottaLaff

Oh, those contempo-Republicans! They're so hep!

[House Minority Whip Rep. Eric] Cantor was addressing more than 100 of the Republican National Committee's top donors [...]

"He’s talking about the importance of technology and understand that we need to connect with new voters and how President Obama’s campaign really demonstrated how to use technology effectively," said a major donor who was in the room, one of two attendees who recalled the moment.

"Cantor says, 'We understand these things: we need to be on social networking sites – like Facebook, and YouTube, and LinkedUp,'" the donor said.

Oops. It's called LinkedIn. Cantor needs to link up with his memory.

"We’re talking about getting tech right and the minority whip doesn’t even know the name of the goddamn website?" groused the donor. "At least John McCain was honest."

"The Congressman simply mis-spoke," said a Cantor spokesman, Brad Dayspring.

Of course he did. He knew exactly what he was talking about. They always do.

Police departments keeping public informed on Twitter

Wonder if this will put police scanners out of business?

(CNN) -- When a report of a possible explosive device on the roof of a city parking garage came in to the Lakeland, Florida, Police Department, public safety officials there sprang into action.

They sent out a squad to investigate and they posted a notice on Twitter.

(snip)

But increasingly, police and fire departments across the country are tapping into social networking to disseminate information to the public.

"We think the police department has an obligation to get information out to the community through whatever means or mechanisms we have at our disposal," said Lakeland Police Assistant Chief Bill LePere. "Traditional media releases, expecting the local print media to pick it up and run it in the newspaper tomorrow, is 24 hours too late."

Catholics Urge High-Tech Fast for Lent

If this is what the Catholic Church considers "modernization", they should stick to clearing their ranks of distasteful priests. How many people depend on tech for a living?

Roman Catholic bishops in Italy are urging the faithful to go on a high-tech fast for Lent, switching off modern appliances from cars to iPods and abstaining from surfing the Web or text messaging until Easter.

The suggestion goes far beyond no-meat Fridays, giving a modern twist to traditional forms of abstinence in the five-week period Christians set aside for fasting and prayer ahead of Easter.

Obama Web Team Has Difficult Transition

The Obama people are probably still packing up the Bush Communications Team's smoke signal equipment tin cans and string**. They'll figure it out.

"The team that ran the most technologically advanced presidential campaign in modern history is finding it difficult to adapt that model to government," the Washington Post reports.

"WhiteHouse.gov, envisioned as the primary vehicle for President Obama to communicate with the online masses, has been overwhelmed by challenges that staffers did not foresee and technological problems they have yet to solve. Obama, for example, would like to send out mass e-mail updates on presidential initiatives, but the White House does not have the technology in place to do so. The same goes for text messaging, another campaign staple."

On a related note, Garance Franke-Ruta reports the White House is now releasing Obama's weekly address to Vimeo as well as YouTube.

**Sigh, just looking for an antiquated form of communication.

MyBo

By GottaLaff

TechnObama:

...Obama's tech talent is finding novel uses for available tools.[...]

How about social networks as a means of encouraging civic engagement, online video as a means of informing the citizenry and a Google search-minded approach to the sharing of government documents? Obama's best-known tech bona fide is the social network his campaign designed. My.barackobama.com (or MyBo, as its users call it) took social networking -- until then, little more than an amusing way to stay in touch with far-flung friends or chat with colleagues -- and developed it into a powerful tool for fundraising, community building and voter turnout.

Paddy and I have been members of MyBo for awhile now. We regularly link their commenters to our posts, and we're proud to say, they love TPC. (What's not to love?)

Pamela Coukos, a Bay Area organizer for the Obama campaign, called the campaign's outreach “old school and new tools.” “The ideas about how to organize people and build meaningful personal connections are very traditional,” she wrote in an e-mail, but the difference was that, with the networked community, “you could reach a huge audience very fast, with a whole lot of information.”

MyBo activity has declined since the election, but, said Coukos, many users are still on standby. “I get lots of people asking me what's next, 'How can I stay organized? How can I be engaged?'.”

Did you see that last sentence? That's key. That's one way we keep the O-mentum going, and it's also a way to clearly communicate our priorities.

Gene Koo, who studies digital methods of education at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, suggested that the new administration might convert the Obama network into a hub for civic action -- though that kind of revamp would not be a slam dunk. “It's not the same thing to make changes in the environment or healthcare as it is to elect a person, where the goal is very singular, where there's a moment of victory or defeat.”

But Koo thinks it's doable. For one thing, “you need some kind of leader who can rally the troops, if that's Al Gore on the environment or Hillary Clinton on healthcare -- then you push down to the local level what you need them to do.”

The Obama team broke another media mold by posting 1,800 videos to YouTube during the campaign, including a dozen with more than a million views each -- the most popular being his speech on race, which has become one of YouTube's most-viewed videos. Last week, the administration-to-be announced that online video would replace radio as its default method for the weekly national address, and the first one, despite being mostly unremarkable, has scored nearly a million views since Friday. [...]

In one of his YouTube videos, Obama tells viewers about a third major element of his digital approach: transparency. “We will put government data online in universally accessible formats."

A transparent, tech-savvy, communicative administration? What a novel concept.

The Obama Transition: Five Queasy Pieces

By GottaLaff

Via Ambinder:

[F]ive things to watch:

1. Which comes first? Climate change legislation or health care? Obama has certainly thought about this, and his advisers don't really agree. [...] The impetus to do health care early is coming from some of the party's most prominent voices, like the SEIU's Andrew Stern, as well as from a lot of the corporate types that Obama consorts with. On the other hand, Obama has said that we're in a post-consumer spending economy and that the future economic growth will be predicated on establishing energy independence and new sources of energy. [...]

2. China. No one's watching China. We're borrowing more and more; the budget deficit might approach a trillion dollars this year. [...] [W]hat if China decided what the U.S. was no longer creditworthy? What if they expect more from the U.S?

3. Obama and technology. [...] What Obama's government-wide chief technology officer will be empowered to do and who'll get the position are probably the subject of more speculation and outside-the-Belway interest than any cabinet position save for Treasury. Will there be an attempt at standardization? A White House blog with more content than just press releases? A White House blog with comments enabled? A petition forum? How will the administration manage the trade-off between transparency and efficiency?

4. What Obama's going to do with his list of names, emails and numbers. Who administers it. What the DNC becomes. This is the subject of intense discussions among very senior people. Steve Hildebrand, one of the architects of the campaign's field strategy, favors an independent entity.

5. Obama versus the Congress. We all want to know: what will their first confrontation be about? Ethics? The CR? Strings attached to an auto industry bailout? A nominee? Earmarks?

Ponder away.

Obama Looks To Be First "Wired" President

It's a whole new world.

Armed with millions of e-mail addresses and a political operation that harnessed the Internet like no campaign before it, Barack Obama will enter the White House with the opportunity to create the first truly "wired" presidency.

Obama aides and allies are preparing a major expansion of the White House communications operation, enabling them to reach out directly to the supporters they have collected over 21 months without having to go through the mainstream media.