If and how will Obama get citizen feedback?

November 10, 2008 | Eric Eldon

What is president-elect Barack Obama’s new transition site, Change.gov, going to become? Right now, the site just contains basic information that the campaign has already made public. But it promises to help make the U.S. government more transparent to its citizens. This is a key part of Obama’s tech platform, and implementing it will be a main responsibility of his soon-to-be-named chief technology officer. That platform specified that web features like open commenting would be one method of getting feedback from citizens about government actions.

Meanwhile, the administration 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,” according to an article today in the Washington Post. It suggests Change.gov could somehow be combined with the database of 10 million supporters’ email addresses, “perhaps with an eye toward turning [the campaign's] following into the biggest special-interest group in Washington.”

The campaign also has a successful social network, at mybarackobama.com — more information that could be used to pre-populate Change.gov with user profiles. But given the diversity of opinions among Obama supporters, not to mention the influx of everybody else who would jump into such a site, it would surely become a place for intense arguments — not just an Obama love-fest. As long as the administration cares what people say on the site, this would be a good thing.

Such a site could rely primarily on user voting, similar the way that news aggregators Digg and Reddit work, as TechDirt imagines it:

Why not create an economic roundtable of sorts online that lets more people weigh in? Let ideas in the mix bubble up to the top using ratings systems (and maybe some White House moderators) and contribute them to the mix. If someone has a particularly good suggestion, why not invite them to a meeting with those “big shot” economic advisers as well? It doesn’t mean that every hare-brained scheme needs to be listened to, but if there’s a good way to allow the best ideas to bubble up and get recognition, it could be quite a powerful new way to govern.

Or it could use automated methods to try to sort out the best recommendations, as one of our readers thought. I’m not wedded to any particular methodology, I’m more concerned about getting a free flow of thoughts without the rampant trolling one sees in the comment section of most political sites.

Implementation in any case, will likely depend on who the new Obama CTO ends up being. Google chief executive Eric Schmidt is officially not in the running. Meanwhile, Valleywag hears the CTO has been in fact named more than a week ago, according to a tipster (so before Obama was elected on Tuesday?). In the event the decision is still up in there air, readers, vote in the poll, below.

<a href="http://www.buzzdash.com/index.php?page=buzzbite&BB_id=129068">Who should be America's CTO?</a> | <a href="http://www.buzzdash.com">BuzzDash polls</a>

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About the Author, Eric Eldon

Eric currently covers digital media technology and business, especially what's happening on social networks and their platforms. He writes and edits stories about lots of other stuff, too. He started at VentureBeat in the spring of 2007, half a year or so after Matt Marshall left his reporting job at the San Jose Mercury News to found the site. Eric previously cofounded a now-failed startup called Writewith, that was building editorial software for newspapers and other groups of writers.

  • PrivatePete
    "Change.gov could somehow be combined with the database of 10 million supporters’ email addresses"

    If mine were one of those 10 million email addresses, there's no way I'd ever want it folded into a .gov database. Bad idea. "Church" and state. Campaigns and government functions should not mix in an official way like this. What if a Republican administration in 8 years uses the change.gov database to compile a list of people due for "random" IRS audits?

    Self-signups for the .gov database? Sure, no problem.

    Hopefully the grownups at the Commerce Department will throw some cold water on the former idea with a refresher course in the Federal online privacy regulations currently in force.
  • PrivatePete, the point is that they'd be pre-populating the site, which can be good for jump-starting interaction. But I see your point, too.
  • jv
    Are you guys drunk? Obama is not interested in Citizen feedback any more than Bush or Clinto were. They just want you vote every 4 years.
  • Maybe, maybe not.
  • a friend
    fyi, Sonal is an amazing & brilliant person, but unlikely to take a CTO-focused role. her expertise is financial/managerial, and her work at Google.org (note: *not* Google.com), Goldman Sachs, Treasury Dept, & IndiCorps has focused on finance & policy topics, also humanitarian efforts, rather than technology engineering. while she is certainly tech savvy, i'd be surprised if she took on such a role.

    personally speaking, i imagine the CTO role will be a challenging one with multiple cross-functional reports. not necessarily a silicon valley insider's highest aspiration, as much as it might serve our country in a very important function.
  • Thanks for the input. I'd noted Sonal was at Google.org when I mentioned her position in a previous article, by the way -- which isn't necessarily less of a plus. Maybe her breadth of experience would be good for the CTO job?
  • Robert Chen
    After Democraftic party take over, we should reverse some change what Bush had done in favor of the rich.
    1. Overtime should include the time worked not at the scheduled hours, not more than 40 hours a week. Of course these hours must have proof of working for company.
    2. If employees not use up vacation hour, employer should not think employees give up their right. More than 2 years ago, employees used to be paid for un-used hours.
    Bush change these at 1st and second terms in favor of the rich, and the rich still move oversea.
    Thank you

    Best Regards,
    Robert Chen
  • Betty Atkison
    Why not give all Americans that file a Income Tax Return who are 21 years of age or older, one household, get a stimulus million dollar check (tax free). Which have to pay off their own forecloser (get thier own houses back), mortgage, paying off all credit card debts, pay off income tax debts delinquent, have to pay off a car or buy a new car, by putting all that money back into the small and large businesses. By doing this it could create shorter unemployment lines, less welfare, less bankruptcy, and create more income for all businesses large and small. THE AMERICAN PEOPLE NEED A BAILOUT!!! This is my personal opinion.