It was slated to fly over the Washington, DC monuments for a swansong journey before officially retiring to a new home at the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Dulles, VA.

It was supposed to arrive between 10 AM and 11 AM ET but it was early. Word traveled faster than the shuttle.

How did we know? Why, Twitter, of course. Thanks, @Smithsonian! (HT @shkon)

Discovery just flew over us at Dulles. Now headed in to fly over DC. Get out there and #spottheshuttle

— Smithsonian (@smithsonian) April 17, 2012

So, we headed up to the roof and anxiously attempted to figure out just exactly which direction to look in anticipation of its arrival. Hashtags started to trend on Twitter such as #SpottheShuttle and #WelcomeDiscovery.

Then, it started with a point — followed by another as we shielded the sun from our eyes. “Is that it?” “Yup, there it is!!”

It flew across the sky from our right to left, riding piggyback and escorted by a fighter jet, before heading toward the US Capitol and the National Mall. Then, just like that, it was gone.

Not something most of us see every day and it was really special to see so many assemble to witness it. Pretty cool way to start a Tuesday.

You had a good run, Discovery. Best to your NASA engineers and crew. Thanks for your service.

RELATED

Discovery Rules Galactic Social Media Empire
(Bethbeck’s Blog, 4/21/12, by @bethbeck)

Space Shuttle Discovery Flies Above Washington DC
(The White House Blog, 4/17/12, HT Macon Phillips)

VIDEO
http://www.tout.com/m/d0rvff

This year’s expanded report is the third annual survey based on interviews with over 500 senior staffers (legislative directors and above) from capital cities in 11 different countries around the world including Washington DC, Brussels, London, Beijing, Ottawa, Mexico City, Paris, Berlin, New Delhi, Buenos Aires and Brasilia.

Although traditional methods public affairs components are still valuable, social media channels have experienced a meteoric rise in their ability to shape and influence policy worldwide over the past year.

Specifically, policymakers have shown a dramatic increase in their use of Twitter, Facebook and mobile technology which underscores the importance of social media and the Internet in educating policymakers and galvanizing them to support a policy issue.

Highlights include:

• 60% of staffers learned about a policy issue for the first time online
• 1/3 changed their position on policy issues based on online information
• 80% of staffers still view in-person visits, phone calls and written letters as effective
• A majority (53%) of policymakers use Twitter
• Poor messaging and lack of grassroots support lead among top campaign “fail factors”

Other global data from the report may be found in the Slideshare PowerPoint and infographic posted below.

RELATED

Edelman Friday Five: 2011 Capital Staffers Index
______

Originally posted on Edelman on Influence

We discussed the new Kindle, Apple price fixing allegations, President Obama’s “We the People” petition via WhiteHouse.gov, government and social media, crowdsourcing, ID spoofing and much more.

Here are the show notes for TWiL #131: All You Need is Seven Inches.

Of course, President Obama’s team isn’t exactly new to Twitter — and neither is the White House. His official @whitehouse Twitter account has been in use since April 2009 and his @BarackObama campaign handle launched in March 2007. Today, the campaign’s Twitter feed seems to be in full re-election mode with almost 9 million followers and the #Obama2012 staff working to keep it updated with both campaign and official White House news.

So, what’s new? The most recent activity of note is that the president himself is beginning to tweet.

Officially, his first tweet was back on January 18, 2010 when President Obama “pushed the button” on a tweet from the @RedCross account. He and Mrs. Obama were visiting Red Cross headquarters to tour the disaster operations center and discuss Haiti relief efforts.

Fast forward 17 months later to June 19, 2011 when the president actually tweeted this message on Father’s Day, “Being a father is sometimes my hardest but always my most rewarding job. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. -BO” The campaign indicated that future posts by the Commander-in-Chief would be designated by a “-BO” signature.

Last week the White House announced plans to host an inaugural Twitter Townhall (HT Alex Howard) on July 6, 2011 moderated by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.

From the release, “White House to Host Twitter @TOWNHALL” on June 30, 2011:

Today, the White House announced through its official Twitter account, @whitehouse, that it will host its first ever Twitter town hall on Wednesday, July 6 at 2 PM ET in the East Room of the White House. Twitter co-founder and Executive Chairman Jack Dorsey will moderate a conversation between President Obama and Americans across the country about the economy and jobs. Starting today, twitter users can submit questions using the hashtag #AskObama. More information from Twitter can be found at the event’s homepage: http://askobama.twitter.com.

Today, the White House also announced its first “Tweetup.” A portion of the Twitter town hall’s live audience will be drawn from people who follow @whitehouse and visit whitehouse.gov/tweetup to sign up. This “Tweetup” will be the first one the White House hosts; future Tweetups will provide @whitehouse followers with the opportunity to attend events, engage with Administration officials, and share their ideas with other @whitehouse followers.

Just today on Independence Day, Vice President Joe Biden joined the Twitter conversation with the launch of his official @VP account. Of course, with only 3,700 followers (at the time of this post), he has a long way to go before catching up with his Democratic veep predecessor Al Gore with 2.2 million, but he’s off to a good start with this first tweet.

In addition to @whitehouse with its 2.25 million followers, several other White House offices, programs and staffers also maintain Twitter accounts including Let’s Move! (@letsmove), Joining Forces (@joiningforces), White House Press Secretary Jay Carney (@PressSec), Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer (@pfeiffer44), Director of Progressive Media & Online Response Jesse Lee (@jesseclee44), Director of Digital Strategy Macon Phillips (@macon44), and White House Photographer Pete Souza (@petesouza).

Clearly, as Campaign 2012 gears up, all of this new activity means that the Excel spreadsheet with official social media account usernames and passwords continues to grow — while a number of official dot gov websites are headed for the “chopping block.”

Will all of these accounts be actively used for sustained engagement or become dormant after they are no longer needed? The issue of transition is an important one — and even the current White House received some criticism when they first came to office for their delay in updating the @BarackObama Twitter feed in the weeks between Election Day in November 2008 and Inauguration on January 20, 2009.

More recently, there was a sizable gap in usage of the White House Press Secretary Twitter handle @PressSec in the transition between Robert Gibbs and Jay Carney back in February 2011. (PHOTO)

Of course, transition is always challenging and whether it’s in two years or six, it is bound to happen again and one has to wonder what will happen to all those official social media sites? Obviously, this is a subject that merits deeper thinking and at the very least — probably a future blog post!

There was confusion when @TheWhiteHouse, launched in September 2007 during President George W. Bush’s Administration, was wiped out after President Obama’s White House officially joined Twitter.

In either case, engagement and interaction with our leaders is always a good thing regardless of the medium — whether the questions and answers are sent via handwritten letter, audio, email, video or even 140 characters.

UPDATE

More details on the #AskObama Town Hall. (Twitter blog, 7/5/11)

To have your voice heard, tweet your questions on the economy and be sure to include the hashtag #AskObama. You can track the conversation in three great ways: Watch the event live at http://askobama.twitter.com, follow live Tweets from @townhall, or search the hashtag #AskObama.

MEDIA

VIDEO: President Obama White House Twitter Town Hall Meeting (C-SPAN)

Twitter town hall: Obama tops 140 characters (Julie Mason, Politico)

Obama Averaged 2,099 Characters in His Twitter Answers (Michael Shear, New York Times)

@USChamber Crashes WH Twitter Party (FamousDC)

Obama faces deluge of tweets on jobs in Twitter town hall (Mimi Hall and David Jackson, USA Today)

Who Didn’t Participate in Twitter’s Town Hall? (Jesse Thomas, JESS3 via Forbes)

RELATED

Remarks by the President in Twitter Town Hall (The White House) | Watch the entire event via the White House YouTube channel.

Video: The President Tweets from the White House (The White House Blog)

Citizen Engagement in the Digital Age

When Barack Obama was sworn-in as the 44th President of the United States in January 2009, much was written about his campaign’s effective use of digital and social media tools to build support, reach new audiences and engage younger voters. Many credit those efforts as being critical to his successful bid for the White House.

Once in office, it was largely expected that the Obama Administration would utilize similar digital strategies for government application. They set out to build on the foundation laid by their predecessors by seeking to leverage emerging digital outlets to better serve and connect with Americans while simultaneously adapting to a rapidly evolving media landscape. The same was true for Capitol Hill.

Growing, Growing, Gone?

The 2010 Capital Staffers Index demonstrates significant increases in digital media including four-times the usage of Facebook compared to three years ago, nearly double for text messaging, almost three-times for blogs and over five-times worth of growth for Twitter. During key policy debates on issues such as the economy, jobs, healthcare, national security, energy and immigration, constituents flocked to the Internet to make their voices heard.

Members of Congress and Hill staffers quickly learned how to navigate in these new channels through direct constituent engagement and the creation of content best suited for social media and networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. In many cases, such content was embedded on official House and Senate “dot gov” sites to augment message reach, optimize digital footprints and increase the opportunity for sharing across various social platforms.

In May 2010, the House Republican leadership even created their own unique digital channel with the launch of “America Speaking Out.” The site was built to serve as an online clearinghouse for crowd-sourced policy ideas with the best rising to the top based on community votes. However, sites like this aren’t designed with the intent of completely replacing traditional methods of contacting Congress such as in-person meetings, phone calls, letters and e-mail which are all still effective in many ways. Rather, they simply open up new avenues to connect.

Similarly, though the rise in social media and digital engagement is remarkable, let’s be careful not to write obituaries for mainstream media outlets just yet. Newsrooms may be shrinking but according to the survey results, their influence on Capitol Hill sure isn’t. For staffers, online news sites remain valuable and consistently rank far above social networks, blogs and social media with the highest usage (64%) occurring from 9 AM to 10 AM and the lowest (42%) from 5 PM to 6 PM.

The Key To Surfing Is… Timing

One of the most interesting findings in the 2010 Capital Staffers Index is how online activity trends throughout the day. Heavy traffic for online news sites early in the morning are likely due to staff who are preparing for briefings, conducting research or just getting caught up on the news of the day.

For the most part, social networks run a distant second in usage percentage when to compared online news sites with two exceptions where they experience significant spikes both during the lunch hour (31% from 12 PM to 1 PM) and at the end of a typical work day (tied with online news at 46% after 6 PM). This would seem to suggest that Hill staffers utilize social networking sites all day for both personal and professional purposes, with an emphasis on the personal during perceived down time.

The Next Wave

Two short years after President Obama’s historic victory, the political tide seems to be turning once again. Perhaps the November 2010 midterm election will most certainly be remembered for the GOP’s sweeping wins, especially in the House of Representatives where Republicans netted over 60 seats, the biggest gain since 1938 when the Democrats lost 71.

In preparation for the start of the 112th Congress, freshman members will endure orientations, elect party leadership, set legislative agendas, learn shortcuts from their new offices to committee rooms, attend briefings and of course, hire various key staff. Many likely campaigned heavily online – but now politicians and staffers alike find themselves in positions of power with great responsibility where they must learn to govern online, as well.

For those who are either unable to accept or unwilling to embrace these new communications realities, perhaps these words from American philosopher, writer and 1983 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Eric Hoffer will serve as encouragement, “In times of change, learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”

Tomorrow, November 9, 2010, President Bush breaks his silence with the official release of his new book, Decision Points.

In it, he takes a self-described “untraditional approach” to writing his life’s memoir by providing a unique perspective of his presidency and focusing on the most demanding part of the job… making decisions.

From the Amazon.com website:

In gripping, never-before-heard detail, President Bush brings readers inside the Texas Governor’s Mansion on the night of the hotly contested 2000 election; aboard Air Force One on 9/11, in the hours after America’s most devastating attack since Pearl Harbor; at the head of the table in the Situation Room in the moments before launching the war in Iraq; and behind the Oval Office desk for his historic and controversial decisions on the financial crisis, Hurricane Katrina, Afghanistan, Iran, and other issues that have shaped the first decade of the 21st century.

President Bush writes honestly and directly about his flaws and mistakes, as well as his accomplishments reforming education, treating HIV/AIDS in Africa, and safeguarding the country amid chilling warnings of additional terrorist attacks. He also offers intimate new details on his decision to quit drinking, discovery of faith, and relationship with his family.

A groundbreaking new brand of memoir, Decision Points will captivate supporters, surprise critics, and change perspectives on one of the most consequential eras in American history – and the man at the center of events.

In addition to the traditional hard copy of the book, some readers may alternatively choose to purchase the digital eBook version (see video below). There’s also an accompanying toolkit for those interested in spreading the word about the book, sharing their thoughts via social media and ordering online.

On October 16, a contest to interview the former president in Dallas, Texas was launched via the official George W. Bush Facebook page. This past Saturday, it was announced that Wyatt Smith, a 22-year old college graduate from Alabama, was selected as the winner and after viewing his video, I’m confident that he will represent the “Facebook Generation” quite well.

In coordination with the book launch, below is a list of President Bush’s scheduled interviews with various media outlets over the next couple weeks. Set your TiVos!

Monday, November 8, 2010
8 PM EST – Matt Lauer, NBC

Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Check Listings – Oprah Winfrey (Local Affiliate)*
1 PM EST – Rush Limbaugh (Local Radio Affiliate)
3-6 PM EST (TBD) – Sean Hannity (Local Radio Affiliate)
9 PM EST – Sean Hannity, Fox News Channel

Wednesday, November 10, 2010
7 AM (local) – TODAY (in studio) w/ Matt Lauer, NBC

Thursday, November 11, 2010
8 PM EST – The O’Reilly Factor with Bill O’Reilly, Fox News Channel

Friday, November 12, 2010
10 PM EST – On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, Fox News Channel

Saturday, November 13, 2010
9 PM EST – Sean Hannity, Fox News Channel**

Sunday, November 14, 2010
Check listings – Jim Axelrod, CBS Sunday Morning***
9 PM EST – State of the Union with Candy Crowley, CNN****

Monday, November 15-Wednesday, November 17, 2010
7 AM EST – Fox and Friends w/ Brian Kilmeade, Gretchen Carlson & Steve Doocy, Fox News Channel

Thursday, November 18, 2010
11:30 PM EST – The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, NBC

Source: Office of George W. Bush
* includes segments with 41s.
** this is a separate interview from the one airing on November 9.
*** with Mrs. Bush.
**** with Jeb Bush.

UPDATE 11/30/10: President George W. Bush visited Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, California on Cyber Monday to discuss his book Decision Points. He was joined by Facebook’s Founder & CEO Mark Zuckerberg and VP & General Counsel Ted Ullyot who served in the Bush Administration both at the White House and the Justice Department.

Monday, November 22, 2010
The Kudlow Report, CNBC

Wednesday, December 8, 2010
8:30 AM EST – Bill Bennett, Morning in America

Monday, December 13, 2010
Hugh Hewitt
Scott Hennen: Part 1 & Part 2

Sunday, January 30, 2011
Q&A with Brian Lamb, C-SPAN

For those not familiar with what this actually means, a CMS is basically the back-end (not visible to visitors) of a website that allows the administrators (owners) of the site — often non-programmers — to easily organize site navigation and add content designed to appear on the front-end.

For most CMS solutions, the user experience is pretty simple, usually consisting of a password protected login, options for varied user permissions for approval and forms with specific fields based on type of content such as text, photos, audio and video. Once entered and saved, the CMS stores the information in the back-end database and displays the content on the front-end when called up by a site visitor.

In the early days of the Internet, many developers created unique proprietary CMS solutions for their staff and clients to save time and streamline the process of maintaining a timely and relevant site. Today, there are hundreds of options out there to choose from. Check out this list from CMS Matrix.

Open source is basically the idea that code doesn’t have to be authored or owned by one person, group or company but rather by a public community of developers free to collaborate, write code, make updates and help advance newer software versions for all to share and benefit. For a more specific description of open source, let’s go to Wikipedia which is, ironically, a type of open source resource for defintions:

Open source is an approach to the design, development, and distribution of software, offering practical accessibility to a software’s source code. Some consider open source as one of various possible design approaches, while others consider it a critical strategic element of their operations. Before open source became widely adopted, developers and producers used a variety of phrases to describe the concept; the term open source gained popularity with the rise of the Internet, which provided access to diverse production models, communication paths, and interactive communities.

Before commenting on the recent upgrade, I did want to set the record straight on a couple things regarding the history of WhiteHouse.gov and the previous CMS.

To get a better understanding of the complete background, I spoke with a couple of my former White House colleagues who were federal government employees in the Office of Administration (OA) of the Executive Office of the President (EOP) back during the transition from President Clinton (42) to President Bush (43).

As I have mentioned before, in my opinion, President Clinton is truly the first Internet president, meaning he was the first to launch a White House website. Here’s what WhiteHouse.gov looked like circa November 1995. Not too shabby at the time. Evidently, in the late 90′s, updates to the site were a bit of a chore. They had to be made manually via files copied to tapes, then physically carried between floors to upload them onto the server a few times a day. Typos could mean a little more exercise that day. Toward the very end of President Clinton’s second term, an automated system was put in place but it wasn’t capable of managing an entire new site for the next four to eight years.

In 2000, with the transition to President George W. Bush’s Administration approaching, a few EOP programmers got together to create an internal homegrown Perl based solution designed to manage basic content needs for the new president’s site. Why Perl? Two reasons. First, Perl was a common programming language at the time, generally used for similar projects. Second, out of the other programming options available, those who were actually developing it knew Perl the best!

(Update from a former EOP insider: “It should also be noted that Perl was picked because the Tool started out as an e-mail to web page processing script. The original tool was developed to solve the problem of posting press releases to the web site automatically. On weekends and after hours, there was no IT staff to do it … so the tool was born of that. Perl as handler script to parse e-mail text into an HTML form and post to the web site. Then it just grew and grew… initially it was all about automation. Only during the later years [sic] did it start into more of your standard (term used loosely) CMS.”)

Out of this collaboration, a completely new and unique solution was born which we affectionately (most of the time) called, “The Tool.”

Over time, as newer site versions and features were rolled out on the front-end, the Tool scaled with it and was updated accordingly to support them including many things it wasn’t originally designed to do such as creating on-the-fly printer friendly alternative text pages (508 compliance) and digital image processing.

In March of 2007, we launched a new (and final) version of WhiteHouse.gov under President Bush. However, even with the new design and improved functionality for users, the Tool remained in place on the back-end. It was tweaked and updated, but the foundation was the same. We considered options to deploy a new CMS, but personally I wanted to be a good steward of taxpayer money and didn’t think it was prudent to spend a couple million dollars on something that was only going to be used for a year and a half or so before being shipped off to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in January 2009. As a result, the site continued using the Tool all the way up until Inauguration Day.

Several months prior to Election Day, and in a very similar scenario to the Clinton-Bush transition preparation in 2000, career federal employess in EOP’s OA division gathered to begin planning for the next president’s website — whether for Sen. McCain or Sen. Obama, nobody knew. They initiated a review of the most effificient, secure CMS solutions. After the completion of the thoughtful, competitive procurement process, General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) was awarded the contract and immediately began work on a new CMS for the 44th President of the United States.

Many stories have reported that President Obama’s team inherited an “old proprietary CMS which has been used by WhiteHouse.gov since the Bush Administration” built and executed by GDIT. However, that isn’t true. As I mentioned earlier, President Bush’s website, CMS Tool and all, was taken offline at 12:00 PM ET on January 20, 2009, President Obama’s Inauguration Day, and ultimately sent to NARA.

President George W. Bush is the first digital president, meaning that he is the first to have his entire presidency captured online via WhiteHouse.gov in the form of transcripts, photos, video and audio. However, Web 2.0 and social media was just gearing up around the time I left the White House in May 2007.

Clearly, the campaign had a huge impact on the growth of the Internet through social media and rapid programming advancements (WordPress 2.8.5 is now available already? I just upgraded to 2.8.4 two weeks ago!) but many of the tools that are being used today either weren’t available to us or hadn’t been tested or matured to the point that we could utilize them effectively within the E-Gov guidelines, privacy policies, security procedures and budgetary limitations that often presented challenges.

To put it in perspective, from 2005-2007, MySpace was the most popular social network, Facebook was locked down to only college students with .edu email addresses, YouTube had recently been purchased by Google but was still growing and Twitter had just launched in March 2007 at SXSW in Austin.

There’s no question that the increased adoption of open source backend solutions in the private sector, and now in government, represents yet another evolutionary step in the rapid growth of the Internet. As these tools become more prevalent, users will be able to better connect and collaborate on shared platforms which only improves the potential for digital public engagement in shaping our democracy.

Congrats to the entire White House new media team!

Want to give it a try? You can actually demo Drupal yourself (and many other open source solutions) courtesy of opensourceCMS.com or you could save yourself some time and just go hire the best in the business!

MEDIA

Podcast: The Right Doctor with David Almacy

(Dr. Melissa Clouthier, The Right Doctor, 11/05/09)

WhiteHouse.gov goes Drupal (techPresident, 10/24/09)

RELATED

White House opens Web site programming to public (Associated Press)

Before Drupal, There Was “The Tool” (techPresident, 10/30/09)

For Drupal Enterprise Software in White House, It’s One Step Forward, One Step Back (IT Business Edge)

Whitehouse.gov could be a springboard for Open Source for America (InfoWorld)

WhiteHouse.gov on Drupal: A skeptic weighs in (OhMyGov)

Whitehouse using Drupal? (Drupal News)

President Obama has come a long way from “You Lie!” to being named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize recipient!

Reaction around the world and in the media was certainly mixed with many feeling that this honor was bestowed way too soon – just eight months into his Presidency. In fact, the nomination application deadline for the prize was February 1, just 11 days after Obama took office. We don’t know who nominated him either and we won’t know a long time. They don’t release that information for 50 years.

The White House was clearly caught off guard. During remarks in the Rose Garden, even President Obama indicated that he felt he wasn’t quite yet deserving of the award:

I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel Committee. Let me be clear: I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations. … To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who’ve been honored by this prize — men and women who’ve inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.

The Nobel Committee evidently chose Obama based on what they hoped he might accomplish instead of what he has already achieved – as if the president didn’t already have enough pressure to tackle what’s currently on his plate.

Let’s take a quick look back. No doubt that the president has had a rough few weeks including his failed attempt to bring the 2016 Olympics to his hometown of Chicago after flying to Copenhagen to personally make the case. That prompted the Drudge Report (and others) to run with this headline: “The Ego Has Landed!”

Some have criticized conservatives for “celebrating” the loss, calling them unpatriotic. However, I don’t think their reaction was rooted in anti-Americanism but rather it was political opportunity that had the GOP reveling in his agony of defeat.

According to Gallup, Obama’s approval numbers have fallen to 51% and Republicans are beginning to emerge from their political malaise. For example, there are real opportunities to win two 2009 gubernatorial races traditionally held by Democrats (Virginia and New Jersey) and take back a sizable chunk of House and Senate seats in 2010.

Liberal attempts to characterize the president’s opponents as “crazy, racist, rightwing nut jobs” don’t seem to be sticking leaving those at the White House and the DNC concerned that Obama’s star is starting to fade — and quickly.

After all, the country is facing grave challenges in the midst of an economic crisis, increased unemployment numbers, troubled healthcare reform proposals, growing nuclear threats in Iran, missle testing in North Korea and escalating attacks in Afghanistan which have all left him wide open to criticism.

Even Saturday Night Live‘s Fred Armisen parodied the president’s long list of “accomplishments” on last week’s show, including the two most important: “jack and squat.”

Enter the Nobel Committee, stage left, with an announcement that Obama was selected “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

Like most news these days, I first learned of Obama’s selection via Twitter early Friday morning. This sent many into a frenzy, and not just conservatives. Tweets had exploded and in usual fashion, it was an instant battle of wits (see list below). I immediately thought the news was the result of some prank that had somehow made its way into the trending topics.

Alas, it was no joke. I remember thinking, “Really? For what?” So, I did a quick Google news search and stumbled across this piece by Michael Russnow on Huffington Post, “Barack Obama, Nobel Peace Laureate: Whatever Happened to Awarding for Deeds Actually Done?” and found myself in total agreement when he wrote:

Whatever one might feel about Obama, he has not earned this singular award. Few American presidents have received it and of those who have it was bestowed after they’d been engaged in something special. … The time has not yet arrived and circumstances have not yet evolved where Barack Obama is anywhere near the point where he has earned this prize.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called the decision “hasty” and “premature.” Al-Jazeera’s coverage framed Obama’s Nobel win as seemingly, “too far-fetched to believe.”

An Egyptian colleague summed up the vehement objections voiced by many to the Nobel committee’s choice by pointing out that Obama’s Cairo speech, cited as one the justifications for his selection, has not been followed with substantial change in US policy. … What, she asked, has Obama done to make the world a more peaceful or just place?

So, what now? What should President Obama do? Some have suggested that he set the prize aside and then go back to the Nobel Committee in three years. At that point, he can either accept or reject it based on what role the U.S. has played, under his leadership, in positively bringing peace to all the troubled corners of the world.

There was a healthy debate about achieving peace through strength on FOX News Sunday yesterday (edited video below via TPM). Liz Cheney suggested that since the U.S. military is the largest peacekeeping force in the world, President Obama should forgo the trip to Oslo in December and send the family of a fallen soldier to accept the award instead. Bill Kristol from The Weekly Standard suggested that president should refuse the award outright, but if he does accept it, he should do so on behalf of the U.S. military and deliver a pro-America speech. Juan Williams from National Public Radio offered, “They just honored the United States and our stature as the lone superpower in the world and our ability to bring peace and that acknowledgement is nothing that is intended to insult America or our military.”

Interesting logic. We didn’t become a superpower overnight or by accident. As the saying goes, “Freedom isn’t free.” Many have bravely sacrificed life and limb in the name of liberty to build our great nation.

If indeed the Nobel Committee, through this award, chose to recognize the men and women serving in the U.S. military for taking the fight to the terrorists, murderous thugs and tyrants, then President Obama should accept it in that spirit.

And he should do so on behalf of our country, his predecessors and all those who have ever proudly worn the uniform of the United States of America in the name of peace and freedom.

RELATED

Barack Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize Because His Last Name Isn’t Bush (FamousDC)

Top Twenty Twitter Reactions To Obama’s Nobel Prize (Patrick Gavin)

What Twitterers Thought of Giving Obama the Prize (TIME)

The Internet is certainly playing a key role. In fact, YouTube may have officially reached its digital advocacy “tipping point” when a handful of videos were recently uploaded featuring flustered politicians struggling to answer tough healthcare questions during several Congressional town hall meetings.

Many Democrats in support of the bill have moved to characterize opponents as an organized, astroturfing, angry right wing mob. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) even went so far as to call the protests “un-American.” On the contrary, it was the SEIU who was caught on tape beating a black conservative who voiced dissent over the plan.

However, this wasn’t an organized gotcha campaign tactic like the infamous “Macaca” incident that many credit for the derailment of Sen. Allen’s re-election campaign in Virginia. Rather, these videos were shot, edited and posted by average, passionate American citizens who gathered to exercise their First Amendment right and demonstrate their concern over President Obama’s proposed healthcare legislation.

As Congress heads into their summer recess, some Members may wish they were spending more time on the beach instead of answering questions from frustrated constituents about government-run universal healthcare. I say let them vacation. After all, it will give them time to actually read the 1,000 page bill, perfect for a little summer reading.

In the midst of all this debate, the Internet continues to ramp up full throttle on both sides of the issue.

The Obama White House is attempting to utilize the Web, just as they did so masterfully during the campaign, in an effort to push the legislation through. How? Well, for starters, Linda Douglass took on the Drudge Report and asks users to “snitch” on fellow citizens if they see “fishy” information online about the healthcare discussion. They even set up an email address (flag@whitehouse.gov) to ease the reporting process.

The primary issue I have with this approach is that the White House Website is taxpayer funded and shouldn’t be used as a tool to gather information about Americans for pure political gain. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) agrees and promptly sent a letter to the White House asking President Obama to bring the program to an end.

If the DNC or BarackObama.com/Organizing for America wants to do this (i.e. Tweet Your Senator = brilliant way to build buzz and your E-mail lists!), fine by me. However, WhiteHouse.gov should steer clear especially when the data collected is not subject to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and new questions are arising about federal government privacy policies.

Is there a double standard here? Former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino makes an excellent point in Politico’s Arena:

“What would have happened if President George W. Bush had asked Americans to forward to the White House emails they’d received that spread “disinformation” or seemed “fishy” regarding any topic, such as the war on terror, immigration reform, tax cuts? How soon would the New York Times have splashed it on the front page, that moveon.org would have flipped its lid, and the Congressional Democrats called for new legislation to strip the President of his wildly expanding powers?”

Just today, WhiteHouse.gov launched a new “Health Insurance Reform Reality Check” feature which offers “facts about the stability and security you get from health insurance reform.”

Those at the National ObamaCare Opt Out (NOOO!) Registry disagree and have launched a site designed to motivate opponents of the bill to join the fight against it by registering and tweeting out with the #optout hashtag on Twitter.

I was recently reminded of the Internet’s infancy about a month ago when Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) appeared on FOX News with Megyn Kelly to discuss H.R. 615. The resolution would require Members of Congress who vote for public option healthcare to give up their current federal employee healthcare plan (as currently written, those serving House and Senate are exempt for five years). While on the program, Rep. Fleming encouraged viewers to visit his Website fleming.house.gov to track the bill’s cosponsors – all Republicans at the time. Interest was so great that increased traffic crashed the server for almost 45 minutes resulting in a 403.9 Error: Too Much Democracy All At Once!

Instead of using some of the more traditional methods, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) chose to outline his thoughts regarding healthcare reform via a video he posted on Facebook. Of course, I learned about this during a talk radio interview with the congressman as I drove into work one morning last week. See, MSM isn’t dead!

As the showdown continues to heat up after the break, one thing is for sure: This is fight is real and the implications are huge. Since Inauguration, many have wondered if Obama would be able to leverage his online campaign supporters into governing once he transitioned to the Oval Office. I think we are about to find out.

UPDATE

Megyn Kelly discusses healthcare “flag” email lists and the Presidential Records Act with Deputy White House Press Secretary Bill Burton on FOX News. (Politico.com, 8/12/09)

‘Omnipotent Clarity’
At last Thursday’s (8/13/09) press briefing, Major Garrett of FOX News asked White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs about many who claim to have received unsolicited healthcare related emails from David Axelrod at the White House.

On Sunday, 8/15/09, Nick Shapiro, White House spokesman for New Media released the following statement, with a follow-up posted on the FOX News White House blog, Row 2, Seat 4:

The White House email list is made up of email addresses obtained solely through the White House website. The White House doesn’t purchase, upload or merge from any other list, again, all emails come from the White House website as we have no interest in emailing anyone who does not want to receive an email. If an individual received the email because someone else or a group signed them up or forwarded the email, we hope they were not too inconvenienced. Further, we suggest that they unsubscribe from the list by clicking the link at the bottom of the email or tell whomever forwarded it to them not to forward such information anymore. We are implementing measures to make subscribing to emails clearer, including preventing advocacy organizations from signing people up to our lists without their permission when they deliver petition signatures and other messages on individual’s behalf.”

Related

White House will change e-mail rules (Politico, 8/16/09)

White House Passes Blame on Unsolicited Health Care E-Mails (FOXNews.com, 8/16/09) The White House suggests third-party groups are to blame for unsolicited health care e-mails.

ACLU – Apologists for Obama? (Scott Stanzel)

Remember when protest was patriotic? (Glenn Harlan Reynolds, Washington Examiner)

Obama’s Authoritarian Style (Wall Street Journal)

Cartoon: Get Out of the Way (John Trever, The Albuquerque Journal)

The collection of status updates on Twitter provided the world an inside look on the dire situation within Iran from firsthand accounts, each message deeply personal and compelling to a worldwide audience. But when the masses turned to their favorite cable news network for more information, they were met with Mike Huckabee talking about credit cards or other irrelevant programming. With no recognizable coverage in mainstream media as events unfolded, it led users to cry foul on the news networks, demanding more information than 140 characters could deliver.

Among the many Twitter-fueled stories from the event, the one that impacts media coverage the most may be how this backchannel removed the mainstream filter to display an amalgamated concept of the news. It gave the masses – first inside Tehran and then across the world – a crude and easy way to drive the issues that concerned them to the top of the marketplace of ideas.

The crowd felt a sense of entitlement for news they wanted covered, and it left the media world playing defense to users who had turned the trending topics sidebar on Twitter’s home page into their own headlines; a user-generated “above the fold” that reflected the group’s dissatisfaction through leads like #CNNFail. Twitter became the instant ombudsman for the media establishment, holding media accountable for what they were – or were not – broadcasting.

The members of the news desk, as well as PR professionals with a vested interest in its agenda, must face the fact that the pulse is beating within a crowd that has tools at their fingertips to easily express their thirst for a certain story. Whether a global issue like the Iranian elections or a local story, communicators must now adapt to provide insights that will smooth the edges and shine the news called for by the crowd.

David Almacy (@almacy) is an SVP and Dave Levy (@LevyDR) is an AE, both with the digital public affairs team at Edelman in Washington, DC. This post is also available on Dave Levy’s blog Most Likely to Die Alone. Original Source: PRWeek (subscription required)