Congressional Transparency: The Camera Eye
By Chad Pergram, Fox News, The Speaker’s Lobby, 7/16/10
David Almacy is an expert on the confluence of politics and new media. He served as the first internet guru at the White House under President Bush. He says that the most blunt discussions are never publicized. “Sometimes I refer to this as the paradox of transparency,” said Almacy, “Once the camera’s turned on and the people in the room know that the cameras are on the conversation obviously changes.”

Fake George W. Bush Is Maybe Lying to You on Twitter!
By Juli Weiner, Vanity Fair, 6/3/10
Next, David Almacy, George W. Bush’s former White House Internet director, tweeted to say that the account was not an official one, and directed would-be followers to a slightly different feed, one he deemed “the official George W. Bush Foundation Twitter account,” which is a verified account.

Techno-GOP: Web-savvy is no longer a monopoly of the political left
By Mary Katharine Ham, The Weekly Standard, 4/26/10
Developers dedicated to the conservative cause are hard to find, said David Almacy, former White House Internet director under George W. Bush, which means Republican candidates pay more for expertise than opponents. The same holds true for graphic designers, but Almacy says the outlook is improving. Some hope the rise of fiscal issues (and relative decline of social issues) will help attract more libertarian programmers and tech-savvy young people.

CNN Radio: ‘Golden Age’ of political social media?
By Bob Costantini, CNN Political Ticker, 4/22/10
“If you look at these types of sites, the last thing we need to do is start creating these networks all over again because it is pretty time-consuming,” says David Almacy, the White House Internet Director for much of former President Bush George W. Bush’s second term. … Now a senior vice president at Edelman Communications, Almacy said that he worries some new “fad” for communicating a political message might come along forcing campaigns to start from scratch, which he said could frustrate supporters who are comfortable with the current online networking tools. … He thinks the major sites have not matured completely, but are well established and useful enough that “we’re on the cusp of it coming into more of a ‘Golden Age’” with less need for something new to engage voters and activists.

The Evolution of WhiteHouse.gov
By Jeremy Jacobs, Politics Magazine, 4/19/10
When George W. Bush took office, the website adapted, adding video like the “Barney Cam” and an “Ask the White House” feature. Almacy said he viewed the website primarily as a tool to disseminate information. “It was not a place for commentary,” he said. Almacy was also limited by several privacy regulations, including a prohibition from linking to anything that didn’t have a “.gov” or “.mil” URL.

Podcast: The Right Doctor with David Almacy
By Dr. Melissa Clouthier, The Right Doctor, 11/05/09
David Almacy now of Edleman Public Relations as Senior Vice President for Digital Affairs and formerly White House Internet and E Communications Office Director of Media Affairs for President Bush, spoke with me about the White House’s claim that the website the Obama team received was archaic and out-of-date. This simply was not true. As part of the “smoothest transition in history,” President Bush had a brand new website ready for whichever new administration took office.

Before Drupal, There Was “The Tool”
By Nancy Scola, techPresident, 10/30/09
Even smaller than the fraternity of people who have served as President of the United States is the fraternity of those who have served as the Internet Director to the President of the United States. David Almacy is a member of the latter club, having served under President George W. Bush’s tenure, and as we chew over the White House’s recent embrace of the Drupal open-source content management system, Almacy has an invaluable post up walking us back through the history of the online White House, back to the days when there was no content management system to speak of.

For Drupal Enterprise Software in White House, It’s One Step Forward, One Step Back
By Dennis Byron, IT Business Edge, 10/29/09
David Almacy, Interent and e-communications director at the Bush White House from March 2005 to May 2007, has also helped out by explaining the minimal role of the previous administration in this story and explaining details about the much-maligned Bush-era CMS.

White House collects Web users’ data without notice
By Audrey Hudson, The Washington Times, 9/16/09
David Almacy, who served as President George W. Bush’s Internet director, said the Bush administration did not use the then-fledgling social-networking sites in the same manner as the Obama White House, except to upload presidential speeches onto iTunes. The White House, however, did archive comments posted to its official Web site.

Hackers Imperil Wilson Campaign Web Site
By Chad Pergram, FOXNews.com, The Speaker’s Lobby, 9/13/09
“It’s like an ‘e-warrior’ kind of politics,” said David Almacy, a senior vice president at Edelman Public Affairs who studies the nexus of technology and government. “There are groups of people who believe that if they can shut down someone’s website, they hurt their ability to campaign.”

Data lags on Obama’s stylish Web site
By Jon Ward, The Washington Times, 6/23/09
It is a point of pride for the Obama administration that they are more technologically advanced than any previous White House, and they say they are using new media to open up government to regular Americans.

The Twitter Revolt Against Mainstream Media
OpEd by David Almacy and Dave Levy, Edelman Digital Public Affairs, PRWeek, 6/17/09
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 Obamas, Living Out Loud
By Jill Lawrence, Politics Daily, www.politicsdaily.com, 5/14/09
It’s easy to make the mistake of believing that the Internet age at the White House started with the Obamas.

Grading WhiteHouse.gov, Round Two
By Jose Antonio Vargas, The Washington Post, washingtonpost.com, 5/11/09
Is WhiteHouse.gov, the online hub of the American presidency, getting better?

Presidential PR: Former White House Web Communications Director on Obama, Katrina, Twitter
By Frank Zeccola, Bulldog Reporter – Daily Dog, bulldogreporter.com, 5/7/09
David Almacy, Senior Vice President, Edelman Former Bush White House Internet and e-communications director David Almacy praises Obama’s use of the Internet and social media during the 2008 presidential campaign, but underscores the challenges ahead for the new administration.

Washington’s Tech Titans
By Garrett M. Graff, Washingtonian Magazine, washingtonian.com, 5/1/09
David Almacy, senior vice president, Edelman Public Relations. A new recruit to Michael Krempasky’s talented digital-public-affairs team at Edelman, Almacy is a former White House Webmaster and one of the few people who talk about eGov who have actually done eGov.

Suite Talk
By Jacqueline Klingbeil & Ariel Alexovich, Politico, 4/28/09
David Almacy, who was e-communications director for the Bush White House, has joined Edelman’s Washington office as a senior vice president in its fast-growing, bipartisan digital public affairs practice.

Obama Team Finds It Hard to Adapt Its Web Savvy to Government
By Jose Antonio Vargas, The Washington Post, washingtonpost.com, 3/2/09
The team that ran the most technologically advanced presidential campaign in modern history is finding it difficult to adapt that model to government. WhiteHouse.gov, envisioned as the primary vehicle for President Obama to communicate with the online masses, has been overwhelmed by challenges…

Lessons from Obama
By Helen Dunne, CorpComms Magazine (UK), 2/18/09
“Certainly, the Obama campaign understood the power of building online community. They used the Internet as an effective communications tool and, of course, to raise money. … Leveraging social media sites like Facebook and Twitter helped connect his supporters but ultimately his election, in my opinion, was more a reflection of the promise of his candidacy rather than just his web presence.”

You don’t have mail
By Mike Madden, Salon, 1/27/2009
“What people tend to forget is just how much the Internet has changed in the past two years, let alone the past eight,” Almacy said.

White House Already Well Wired, Bush Staffers Say
By Paul Wagenseil, FOXNews.com, 1/23/09
David Almacy, who ran the whitehouse.gov Web site and was the administration’s Internet and e-communications director from 2005 to 2007, blames simple logistics and red tape for the Obama team’s problems. “Bureaucracy is nonpartisan,” he said. “Moving 3,000 people out and 3,000 people in is a Herculean task.”

Obama Staff Arrives to White House Stuck in Dark Ages of Technology
By Anne E. Kornblut, washingtonpost.com, 1/22/09
If the Obama campaign represented a sleek, new iPhone kind of future, the first day of the Obama administration looked more like the rotary-dial past. The system has daunted past White House employees. David Almacy, who became President George W. Bush’s Internet director in 2005, recalled having a week-long delay between his arrival at the White House and getting set up with a computer and a BlackBerry. “The White House itself is an institution that transitions regardless of who the president is,” he said. “The White House is not starting from scratch. Processes are already in place.”

Microsoft Oval Office:
Will President Obama have a personal computer?
By Nina Shen Rastogi, Slate, 1/22/09
According to David Almacy, who served as Bush’s director for Internet and e-communications from 2005-07, only two people had access to the iTunes store during that period: Almacy, who had to upload speeches to the site, and the president’s personal aide, so that he could download songs for Bush’s iPod.

The Wired Presidency:
Can Obama Really Reboot the White House?
By Evan Ratliff, Wired, 1/19/09
In November, not two weeks after winning the election and still two months from becoming commander in chief, Barack Obama brought the government into the 21st century. Or at least that was what we were told when he released his first Web video address as president-elect.

Obama staff will say cu l8r 2 IM
By Ben Smith, Politico.com, 1/17/09
This is yet another good example of how campaigning and governing online differ. The tools and technology are rapidly increasing inside government, but there are still limitations. Perhaps now some will understand the challenges we faced. It’s clear that the rules need to be changed to keep pace with this ever-changing medium.

What’s Next For Obama’s Wired White House?
By Sarah Lai Stirland, National Journal, CongressDaily, 1/12/09
“President Clinton was the first Web President, [George W.] Bush was the first digital president, and President [elect] Obama will be the first social media president,” says David Almacy … who worked as Bush’s White House Internet director until May 2007.

e-Hail To the Chief: Obama Won With Web’s Help.
Now, How to Govern Using That Community?
By Jose Antonio Vargas, The Washington Post, washingtonpost.com, 12/31/08
“Clinton was the first Web president. Bush is the first digital president,” says David Almacy, who served as Bush’s Internet director from 2005 to 2007. “Obama is the first online social networking president.” And online social networking is designed to foster a community. For that approach to be effective, WhiteHouse.gov can’t just push information out — it has to pull content in, too. And once it does so, the administration will have to decide whether, when and how to incorporate those voices into its decision-making process.

A “Dotcom’ White House
By Rajini Vaidyanathan, BBC NEWS, 11/28/08
During Obama’s election campaign he took fundraising and grass roots organizing on the world wide web to a whole new level. But now that he’s won the keys to the White House how will this tech savy leader operate? [ Video ]

White House awaits president 2.0
By Savannah Guthrie, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, 11/22/08
Longtime political advisers marveled at the ability of Barack Obama’s campaign to harness the Internet as a fundraising and coalition-building tool. As NBC’s Savannah Guthrie reports, the transition team is hoping to bring their technological touch to the White House. [ Video ]

Under Obama, a newly interactive government?
The president-elect aims to use the Internet to make government more participatory.
By Alexandra Marks, Christian Science Monitor, 11/8/08
President Bush took that a step further, turning the White House website into a “repository of all the things the president was doing on that day,” according to David Almacy, who was the White House’s Internet director from 2005 to 2007.

Obama to preside over White House 2.0
AFP, 11/8/08
David Almacy, who served as Internet and e-communications director for President George W. Bush, said the Internet is “a very powerful tool in communicating the president’s agenda.” … Almacy, who overhauled whitehouse.gov during his two years in the White House, making it a much more dynamic website, warned though that the Obama administration may find there are limits to how much it can do.

Obama surfs the Web to the White House
AFP, 11/4/08
Almacy, who brought RSS feeds, email updates, audio podcasts and on-demand video to whitehouse.gov while serving in the Bush White House, said he will be watching with interest what an Obama administration does with the Internet. “It’s a lot more difficult,” he said. “A campaign is centered around one day, you’re pushing to that one day. Government is not focused on one day. It’s more of a long-term approach.”

The new battleground
By Erica Iacono, PRWeek, 9/22/08
“What’s changed is how people have used the medium and how the user-generated content [has grown],” he says. “[For] the younger generation… it’s a primary form of communication – whether it’s online or through mobile devices.”

The next generation – PRWeek’s 40 Under 40
December 2007 – Talent has always been at the heart of the PR industry. Certain individuals can help attract new clients, grow existing business, and inspire colleagues. Such abilities are crucial as the industry competes with other marketing disciplines. Today’s PR pros exhibit their talent in different ways – from traditional media relations to digital prowess to crisis communications. On these pages, PRWeek profiles 40 PR pros, nominated by industry peers, who have achieved tremendous feats before they turn 40. [ PDF download ]

WE’s Almacy offers White House-honed Web savvy
PRWeek, 7/2/07
While David Almacy was working for the White House … he displayed an understanding of the blogosphere’s importance, particularly as it related to crisis scenarios, when many inside the Beltway were still wringing their hands about social media.

David Almacy hosts Ask the White House
WhiteHouse.gov, 3/1/07
Thank you for joining us today to discuss the new design and functionality of WhiteHouse.gov. … In addition, this month marks my two-year anniversary as the White House Internet and E-Communications Director, and it has been an honor to serve President Bush and to communicate his message online. With that, I am happy to answer your questions.

White House 2.0
National Journal, Tech Daily Dose, 2/28/07
The White House Web site has a new look this week. Visitors will find an updated design with improved access to information about the president’s speeches, events and policies. … According to White House Web guru David Almacy, the upgrades were made to streamline the code, refresh the design and better highlight features.

Bush: Saddam’s Execution Will Not Stop Bloodshed
Associated Press, FoxNews.com, 12/31/06
“The president was pleased with the culmination of the Iraqi judicial process and that justice was done,” White House spokesman David Almacy said, describing Bush’s reaction to learning that the execution was close to being carried out. Bush arose shortly before 5 a.m. CST on Saturday and had a 10-minute phone call about an hour later with Hadley to discuss world reaction to the execution, Almacy said.

The Paradox of Podcasting
By Robert MacMillan, WashingtonPost.com, 8/11/05
“As technology advances, the White House recognizes the importance of providing content in new ways to reach new audiences to communicate the president’s vision,” Almacy said. … Regardless of the current brouhaha over what that vision is, it might be possible to classify the Bush White House as jumping ahead of the curve on technology.