Obama's 100 Days: High Marks for Science, Low for Privacy

An interesting article, from Wired, grading President Barack Obama's first 100 days in office, on science and technology related issues.

Couric Uses Facebook to Evaluate New Administration

CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric is asking viewers to evaluate the first 100 days of President Barack Obama’s government, reports Jennifer Van Grove, writing on Mashable. And she is using Facebook – the hugely popular website poised to become the number 1 social network in the world – to do it.

In a 48 second video clip posted to her page, Couric issues a video challenge to viewers: create a 20 second video on what Obama’s done wrong or right while in office, and post it to Couric’s Facebook page. The best videos will be included in a live broadcast from CBSNews.com on April 29 at 7 pm.

Courac is a big user of Web 2.0, active on YouTube, Digg, and Twitter (@katiecouric).

According to Van Grove, Couric is

doing a fantastic job combining her star power with social media savvy to raise her profile on Facebook and grow the CBS audience through potentially viral channels. The power of massive comments, likes, and user-created Facebook videos, is that the CBS message gets dispersed to new audiences (friends of friends) with every act of sharing.”

Only those of you who have a Facebook page can post videos. If you are interested, you can watch the video and participate here.

No Federal Chief Technology Officer, Yet

During his election campaign, President Barack Obama used technology in unprecedented ways. In addition, he promised that, as president, he would name a Chief Technology Officer, to move the federal government into 21st century.

However today, nearly 100 days into his term, the President has yet to name a such an Officer, reports TechCrunch:

[I]t’s confusing as to why the President is taking his sweet time to appoint a CTO, when there are clear issues that a CTO could be working on. For starters, there are tech-centric issues like the FCC’s National Broadband Plan to give all American’s high speed Internet access, and the DTV Delay Act, which was signed into law in early February. There’s the Open Government initiative, through Change.gov, which seems to be in a stalemate. And certainly a CTO could lend his or her expertise and leadership in incorporating technology into the President’s health-care, education and energy initiatives. Take a look at the technology issues page of the White House’s website for a more extensive to-do list awaiting our future CTO.

As the FCC has just called for a discussion on a national broadband plan. It would have been good to have a CTO on board to guide this discussion. I hope the Administration fills this position in a timely manner.

Will Federal Data Be in the Clouds?

Some of the largest technology companies -- including Amazon and Microsoft -- want federal government agencies to house data on the companies' servers, "in the clouds," instead of on government servers, according to Kim Hart writing for the Washington Post. The companies argue that such outsourcing of data storage is a way to cut costs and boost efficiency.

The housing of much personal government data on corporate servers makes me nervous. I think that the new Administration in Washington should consider a technological makeover of municipal, state, and federal government. That would be a spending bill that, I believe, would have merit.

President's Online Town Hall Meeting a Good Use of the Technology

I watched part of President Obama's online town hall meeting this morning. In all, 92,933 peopel went online to submit 104,077 questions and cast 3,605,999 votes on which questions should be answered by the President. Five questions were chosen.

Though there were no new policy announcements made, the online meeting was an interesting political event. It was well-choreographed and excellently streamed, and a nice use of social networking media.

While I would have preferred a real-time online meeting, I think that the Administration made good use of the technology. If this will lead to more openness and transparency in government, it will be a good thing.

President to Host Online Town Hall Meeting on Economy at 11:30 am, March 26

Last week, I wrote about a project of The Nation, The Washington Times, and the Personal Democracy Forum, called Ask the President, a website on which users submit questions and then vote on the questions they would like to see asked President Obama at a press conference. The most highly voted questions will then be given to a credentialed journalist, who will ask the most appropriate one if given the opportunity.

The Administration has created its own version of this – with a little more presidential control.

In what is being built as on “online town hall meeting,” President Obama will answer questions about the economy which were submitted to the Open for Questions page on whitehouse.gov, and then voted on by others.

The president will answer the most popular questions on March 26, at 11:30 a.m., live on whitehouse.gov.

As of about 12 hours before the event, 64,243 questions had been submitted. You can still submit your question until 9:30 a.m.

Ask the President at a Press Conference

Have you ever wanted to leap to your feet at a presidential press conference and ask a hard-hitting question? If The Nation, The Washington Times, and the Personal Democracy Forum have their way, you might have your chance.

Sort of.

The three organizations have teamed up to launch Ask the President, a website that hopes to get President Barack Obama to answer questions from regular folks during his press conferences.

On Ask the President, users submit questions and then vote on the questions they would like to see asked. The most highly voted questions will then be given to a credentialed journalist, who will ask the most appropriate one if given the opportunity.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that the journalist will be called on, as The Nation explains: “The East Room press conferences are among the most exclusive and least democratic public gatherings in American politics; the White House controls who attends and who gets called on. So the coalition is appealing directly to the Obama administration to admit and call on the journalist armed with citizen questions.”

The President has pledge a more open and innovative government. Ask a President could be a step in this direction.

[via mashable]

Track the Stimulus Money via RSS Feed

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- the stimulus package -- recently signed by President Obama, requires that each government agency reports the money it gives out via RSS, according to Raw Thought. For each of the near term reporting requirements (major communications, formula block grant allocations, weekly reports) agencies are required to provide a feed of the information so that content can be delivered via subscription.

This, to me, is an example of using the technology appropriately to provide more open government.

[via boingboing]

Final Stimulus Plan Includes $7.2 Million for Broadband

According to the American Library Association Washington Office, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, recently signed by President Obama, includes $7.2 billion for broadband Internet access: $2.5 billion for Rural Utilities Service and $4.7 billion for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) broadband grant program to increase broadband access and usage in underserved areas of the nation. The latter includes $200 million in competitive grants for expanding public computer capacity at public libraries and community college libraries.

For more on broadband as an economic stimulus, see here and here.

Broadband Expansion Removed from Economic Stimulus Bill

According to CNN, $2 billion allocated for broadband development has been removed from the Senate’s version of the economic stimulus bill.

[via Slashdot.org]

More Use the Internet to Search for Jobs

Another from the comScore 2008 Digital Year in Review (requires registration and .pdf download):

The top-growing Internet site category in 2008 was Job Search, growing 51% to 19 million visitors in December. Category leader, CareerBuilder.com, jumped 78% to 9.1 million visitors.

As another sign of the worsening economy, Coupon sites witnessed a 46% increase during the year, reaching more than 31.5 million Americans in December. Women’s sites -- the largest category with 100 million visitors -- also increased 46% for the year.

And, as we have blogged about, the presidential election was played out, in large part, electronically: the Politics category went up to nearly 12 million visitors. BarackObama.com attracted an average of three times as many visitors as JohnMcCain.com during the course of the year on the road to victory.

Is Internet Access an Economic Stimulant?

Last week, we blogged about a Pew Internet and American Life report that concluded that 10% of Americans would connect to broadband Internet access if it was extended to their areas at an affordable price. At that time, there was talk that the new U.S. Administration would include money for extending broadband it its economic stimulus package.

What a difference a few days makes. Now, according to Yahoo's tech/ticker, increased high-speed Internet access might be off the table.

Maybe Big Brother Really is Watching

If you've had a bit too much inaugural coverage (I have) and the coming of the new age (looks like the old age to me), then I apologize for adding one more "you have got to see this" moment. But really, you have got to see this. Go ahead and zoom in on someone waaaay out in the Mall and the implications slowly dawn that his technology, cool as it is (and it really is) is kind of scary too. BTW, what do you think Clarence Thomas is thinking?

Five Most Popular Facebook Fan Pages

In case you are wondering which Facebook fan page is the most popular, it is President Barack Obama’s, with just over 4.5 million fans.

The runner-up is Coca-Cola with 2.28 million fans, edging out Homer J. Simpson with 2.23 million fans.

Fourth and fifth most popular fan pages belong to Nutella (2.1 million) and Pizza (2.05 million.)

How can Nutella have more fans than Pizza?

[Statistics courtesy of AllFacebook, “the unofficial Facebook blog,” via Techcrunch]

Fun Friday: Obamicon Me

Paste magazine has created a site where you can upload your photos and have them stylized like the famous Obama poster by Shepard Fairey.

Check out Obamicon Me here.

Increasing Broadband Users Through Economic Stimulus

According to the latest report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, investment in broadband Internet access has become part of the broader discussion about President Obama's economic stimulus package.

How easy will it be to increase the pool of broadband subscribers or to encourage existing ones to upgrade their connection speeds?

Pew’s answer?

So, if more and faster broadband is provided, will people come? The analysis here suggests that the answer is “yes,” but that it may take longer than some advocates anticipate. To be sure, targeted efforts to address infrastructure gaps and cost barriers could, within a few years, boost broadband adoption by as much as 10 percentage points. And one-third of existing broadband subscribers are low hanging fruit to adopt faster broadband soon after it is available. However, one-in-five Americans currently don’t have broadband for reasons that won’t be addressed by price cuts or a fiber node in the neighborhood. It will take time to get them up and running on broadband -- probably longer than the impacts of the stimulus package are intended to last.”

Read the full report.

Governing during the Internet Age: Whitehouse.gov Receives a Makeover

At the same moment that Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States, whitehouse.gov – the official website of the President – received an extreme makeover. The site will now allow users to find the President’s schedule, video addresses, executive orders, and other news. And, of course, the revised site comes with a blog.

President Obama used the Internet to an unprecedented degree during the campaign, as a media and organizing tool. For some of the challenges he will face governing during the Internet age, see Wired.com’s, The Wired Presidency: Can Obama Really Reboot the White House?

Motown Gold: Aretha Franklin Performs "America" at Obama Inauguration

It is always nice to have your hometown represented at a history making event:

Preserving Your Piece of American History

A long, but useful, post on how to preserve physical artifacts from today's historic inauguration, passed on by Carol Fink, Rare Book Curator of the Library of Michigan:

Six Tips to Preserve Your Election Collections

Across the nation, Americans are saving newspapers, posters, buttons, and bumper stickers to commemorate the historic election and inauguration of Barack Obama, America's first African American president. Anne-Imelda M. Radice, Director of the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), encourages citizen-collectors to make sure that their presidential inauguration collections will be preserved long into the future.

"The election day newspaper -- cared for properly -- will still be there years from now to remind us and future generations of this singular moment in American history," Radice said. "This is a great time to raise awareness of the need to protect election and inauguration-related items from common threats such as high temperature, humidity, and light exposure."

This guidance was excerpted from Caring for Your Family Treasures by Heritage Preservation, IMLS's partner in Connecting to Collections, a multi-year, multi-faceted initiative that aims to help museums and libraries save their collections from poor storage conditions, pest infestation, and exposure to light, humidity, and high temperatures.

Follow these simple preventive steps to keep your treasures safe and sound for the next generation:

1. If you feel comfortable, your treasures will be comfortable. When you feel hot or cold, damp or dry, so do your treasures. You wouldn't feel comfortable living in the basement or attic and neither are they. You feel better when there is good circulation; so do they.

2. Avoid extremes of temperature and humidity. Strive to maintain as moderate and stable a level (72 degrees Fahrenheit and 50 percent relative humidity) as practically possible. When choosing where to display or store objects remember that the conditions of the interior walls, room, and closets are more stable than those on the exterior.

3. Create micro-climates and use protective covers. Matting and framing with proper materials creates protective micro-climates, as do chemically stable boxes (even boxes within boxes). Use dust covers on stored objects and polyester liners on wooden shelves to protect your treasures from dust and pollutants.

4. Limit light exposure. The damaging effects of light are cumulative. Take precautions with the amount and type of light to which your treasures are exposed.

5. Inspect your treasures regularly and tend to problems as they arise. Regularly checking your treasures will help you monitor and tend to problems as they arise. A water condensation problem might not be present in the summer, but left unattended during the winter, could cause serious damage.

6. Be sure that any alterations are reversible. Respect the original historic materials and structure. Don't cut an artwork to fit a frame. And if you must clip a photograph for your scrapbook, do it to a copy and keep the original intact elsewhere.

For more information on preserving your collections, please go to the Guide to Online Resources section on Care For Collections.

Obama's Online Opportunities

According to the latest report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project:

There is no shortage of suggestions to the incoming Obama administration about what to do about communications policy in the United States. The body of research from the Pew Internet Project, dating to 2000, indicates that online Americans might have one more suggestion: Make sure the Internet remains a place where users define what it means to be digitally connected.

The report concludes:

In a broadband and increasingly wireless Internet, it is not just about trying new things, but, for many users, also reworking and using them in new ways. Our research into Internet use suggests that maintaining such an online environment will give users the wherewithal to continue to innovate and surprise.

For an copy of the report: Obama’s Online Opportunities.