Change [dot] Gov

November 10, 2008

Pres-elec Barack has a shiny new website up an running called change.gov.

The initial purpose is to allow for transparency and discussion while he builds a cabinet team capable of cleaning up the mess in government accrued over the last few years.

 

Speculators say the days of fireside chats with the president on saturday mornings over the radio in the living room are over.  It’s interesting to have a president who is very tech savvy, ready to change the way we communicate, and has changed the way campaigns communicate/raise money.

He ran the most successful campaign in history.  Conspiracy theorists can argue that some of the money raised on the website was through anonymous ‘visa type gift cards’ – campaign finance laws state that you do not have to refuse any money, but should give unidentified (or over contributed individual funds) back to the person donating.  In the case of random gift card donations, there is no one to trace the funds back to. So what – water under the bridge imho.  

The point is – you can leverage the internet regardless of you business, service, idea – so anything you create that is worth talking about, can be talked about with the greatest of ease and laziness.  Just perfect for the ADD generation.  The trick is to actually be creating something worth talking about.  For more resources on how to do that, read anything Seth Godin writes.

The Change dot Gov site could really be a cool public forum, in which the voice of the people – aka true democracy – is actually disseminated, organized, measured, and most importantly, listened to.  Someone should figure out how to catalogue all the comments/opinions, because anyone familiar with open forums knows the majority of the posts are junk – but great ideas tend to rise to the top.

Exciting times, indeed.  

In the words of Abraham Lincoln:

…That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

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