(SA20) Wiki White House Can Obama Use Technology to Transform Government?

Title: Wiki White House Can Obama Use Technology to Transform Government?
Publication Information: New America Foundation event that was recorded and disseminated, Jan. 9, 2009
Summary: A panel of “technology evangelists” came together in Washington D.C. for a panel discussion co-sponsored by the New America Foundation, Wired Magazine, and Google that covered transparency its importance for a more participatory government and also the technological and regulatory barriers for creating a government that parallels today’s technology with the use of social media, wikis and open forum discussions.

Topic: Should the Obama administration implement a strong policy of openness and transparency?
Category: Institutional 8, Multimedia 3
What is it? Recorded like Panel Discussion
Date: Jan. 9, 2009
Author / Participants:
Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist
Mindy Finn, director of E-Strategy for Mitt Romney for President
Ellen Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation
Sascha Meinrath, research director for Wireless Future Program of New America Foundation
Nicholas Thompson, Moderator and fellow for New America Foundation and senior editor for Wired Magazine.

Location: http://www.newamerica.net/events/2008/wiki_white_house
Accessed: 24/Feb/2009

Support:
Tom Steinberg, head of MySociety
Mark Drapeau, Media Shift
Techpresident.com
Federal Web Managers
Change.gov: Now Whitehouse.gov
Commenters on Obama first YouTube Address
Sunlight Foundation
Deval Pattrick, governor of Massachusetts
Peer to Patten Project
David Almacy, former White House Internet Director
Let Our Congree Tweet
Press Release from the Federal Web Masters Council: Social Media and the Federal Government: Perceived and Real Barriers and Potential Solutions
Rebuild the Party
Project Vote Smart
John Culberson

The support is a mixed list of links, studies, press releases and people leading the way in transparency movement and / barriers to transparency that was mentioned throughout the discussion by the panel members. The Panel members are experts in their fields, but they do not hesitate to use other’s information to help make their case.

Audience and Agenda:
The New America Foundation is a nonprofit think tank located in Washington D.C. that was founded in 1999 and is a self-described nonpartisan public policy institute that seeks to find new ideas for solve the problems that face America in the future. Its audience for the this video is the Obama administration, policy makers to whom they seek to encourage a more open government and seemingly anyone who is interested in participating in local and federal policymaking. It’s lead by the current President and CEO Steve Coll. The foundation’s entire roughly $10 million 2007 budget was funded by donations from other foundations and individual donors. 2008 saw donations from groups and individuals such as the James Irvine Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, Wendy and Eric Schmidt and Bernard L. and Irene Schwartz who all donated over $1 million. According to Statbrain, the New America site receives 6,859 visits per day and has rank 111,785 per Alexa.

Usefulness:
This video is useful for the amount of ideas and suggestions for more transparency in the federal government. It also offers new ideas for how to implement new policy and also because the panel member talk about the difficulties that the Obama administration and federal agencies face. The panel was a great mix of center, left and right thinkers who have direct experiences in government policymaking and technology innovations.

Works referenced / Links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAnDfAWv2hM
http://www.newamerica.net/events/2008/wiki_white_house
http://www.wired.com/video/foratv
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craigslist
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Newmark
http://pdf2007.confabb.com/users/profile/Mindy+Finn
http://www.saschameinrath.com/sascha_bio
http://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasxthompson
http://www.wired.com/
http://www.newamerica.net/about
http://www.newamerica.net/about/funding
http://www.newamerica.net/about/statistics
http://www.newamerica.net/people/steve_coll
http://www.statbrain.com/www.newamerica.net/
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main/newamerica.net?q=
http://www.mysociety.org/about-tom-steinberg/
http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/about/council.shtml
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd8f9Zqap6U
http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=gov3homepage&L=1&L0=Home&sid=Agov3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer_to_patent
http://capitalgig.com/
http://letourcongresstweet.org/
http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/documents/SocialMediaFed%20Govt_BarriersPotentialSolutions.pdf
http://www.rebuildtheparty.com/
http://www.votesmart.org/
http://www.culberson.house.gov/

Advertisement