There has been a lot of buzz recently about how President-Elect Obama might carry the online momentum created during his campaign into the White House with him come January 2009. Taking a step in that direction, the President-Elect announced this week that he may alter the traditional method of delivering the Presidential Weekly Radio Address.

As the Washington Post’s Jose Antonio Vargas reported yesterday in The YouTube Presidency:

President-elect Obama will record the weekly Democratic address not just on radio but also on video — a first. The address, typically four minutes long, will be turned into a YouTube video and posted on Obama’s transition site, Change.gov, once the radio address is made public on Saturday morning.

According to Mike Allen, who writes Politico.com’s Playbook, the Obama-Biden transition stated on Friday that “No President-elect or President has ever turned the radio address into a multi-media opportunity before.”

Actually, that’s not true. All of President George W. Bush’s radio addresses have been published weekly since January 27, 2001 and available via WhiteHouse.gov on the White House Radio page. In addition, President Bush has delivered several LIVE radio addresses, many of which included a webcast, audio, photos and on demand video post event.

• September 11, 2004 from the Oval Office
• September 3, 2005 from the Rose Garden
• December 17, 2005 from the Roosevelt Room
• November 4, 2006 from Mile High Coffee shop in Englewood, Colorado

On a related note, Mrs. Laura Bush became the first First Lady to deliver an entire Presidential Radio Address when she spoke to the nation from Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas on November 17, 2001. She gave another radio address from the headquarters of Radio Free Europe in Prague, Czech Republic May 21, 2002 to discuss Afghanistan and again, most recently, on February 1, 2008 from her office in the East Wing of the White House to highlight the importance of heart health during American Heart Month.

In July 2005, as White House Internet Director, I worked with our web team and Apple to create a “room” in iTunes to house all White House Podcasts, starting with President Bush’s Weekly Radio Address in both English and Spanish.

We built it out further in September 2005 to include audio from all of the President’s public remarks, events and White House press briefings. We also added video such as State of the Union speeches and Presidential Addresses to the Nation.

At the time, washingtonpost.com’s Robert MacMillan wrote about the new WhiteHouse.gov feature in The Paradox of Podcasting:

I don’t know any other word to use besides “mainstream” when I hear from the White House that President Bush’s radio addresses will be offered via podcast. … Not only that, the White House has created RSS feeds for the radio addresses in English and Spanish. That means that anyone who wants to can sign up to receive the information through their RSS readers along with news and other Web site updates that offer this service. … 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.

Why Audio?
President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke directly to the American people about thirty times via radio from 1933 to 1944 in a series of broadcasts which later became known as “Fireside chats.”

During this Golden Age of Radio, FDR envisioned American families huddled around the radio in homes around the country listening to the voice of their President providing them assurance and comfort as the nation struggled to endure the trials of The Great Depression.

Today, the president typically records the radio address on Friday in the Cabinet Room with audio broadcast and web transcript publication embargoed until 10:06 AM EST Saturday morning. Originally, that time was chosen because the five minute national news reports aired at 10 AM, with the address immediately following. To honor that past tradition, we usually published the content on the White House staging servers before we went home on Friday night, and set the pages to auto-publish on Saturday at the appointed time.

Using video is an interesting — and definitely more modern approach, but I think it defeats the spirit and purpose of a “radio” address. There’s a big difference between audio and video presentations. Anyone who has ever set the tuner to AM to hear a local talkshow, subscribed to XM Radio, enjoyed the long form style of C-SPAN Radio coverage, National Public Radio reporting or the CBS Sunday Morning’s use of ambient sound during the nature segment can certainly appreciate the nuance of the medium.

How will President Obama’s radio address differ from any other Presidential webcast or televised speech he gives? Will it lessen the value of other White House addresses to the nation, like those typically delivered from the Oval Office? What about the fact that it might be in YouTube as opposed to just on WhiteHouse.gov (assuming E-Gov policies are changed to allow it)?

Well, here is President-Elect Obama’s first one from today. What do you think?

This week, a few hundred convened to attend the 2-day Politics Online Conference 2008 hosted by the  Institute for Politics Democracy and the Internet (IPDI) at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, DC. 

On Day 2, I had the pleasure of participating on the Morning Plenary panel sponsored by Politico entitled, “White House 2.0.”  We discussed how the Internet, which has been so prevalent in the current presidiential race, will possibly change how a future Administration will govern.

The panel, moderated by Ari Schwartz, Center for Democracy and Technology included Sunlight Foundation Executive Director Ellen Miller, former Congressman Rick White of the Wood Bay Group and Tom Steinberg from the UK’s mySociety.org.

It was a very lively discussion where a number of innovative ideas for citizen activist and engagement websites were shared - but, in my opinion, most would be best managed outside the official dot gov arena.  There are a number of current restrictions and regulations that govern federal government sites that may provide some barriers to participation. 

For example, there are rules prohibiting federal government sites from linking to or publishing content on external sites other than .gov or .mil, concerns about info collected by agency sites while protecting user privacy, and compliance with Section 508 which requires dot gov sites to provide content in alternative formats for those who are sight or hearing impaired.  All certainly have merit, but these are rules that non-gov sites don’t have to adhere to which may create challenges when attempting to apply universal standards for digital dissemination.  Bottom line: policies will have to be changed in order to adapt to the growing and everchanging online landscape.

However, at the root of the issue seemed to be a general lack of familiarity of the purpose of “dot gov” sites.   I was surprised to hear one of the panelists characterize federal sites as nothing but a useless repository of government brochureware and press releases.  Not only is that statement incredibly unfair, it’s entirely at odds with the facts.

Of course, sites do serve the important function of communicating with the public on policy initiatives and agency news but many dot gov’s offer so much more, with new functionality being added every day by a myriad of hard working, dedicated public servants.

A few examples:

• The Education Department uses ED.gov to connect teachers from across the country to share lesson plans, best practices and provide training via the Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative.
• The Small Business Administration offers over 25 online training courses on SBA.gov for those interested in learning more about how to start, manage or advertise their business.
• The National Institutes of Health solicited feedback via NIH.gov in an effort enhance and improve the effectiveness of their peer review system.
• USA.gov, managed by the General Services Administration, is a wealth of information and offers over 100 government services accessible online.  

It is important to note that the Internet is still in it’s relative infancy when compared to other communication innovations like the telephone or TV.  When President Bush was elected in 2000, iPods, YouTube, Facebook, and Smartphones didn’t exist and most were still accessing the Internet via dial-up.

There is always room for improvement but, in my opinion, the Bush Administration has not been given due credit for the E-Gov advancements that have been made over the past seven years. A full list of all 24 Presidential E-Gov Initiatives may be found on the Office of Management and Budget’s eGov site located at egov.gov.

There has been some real progress indeed, including the move to paperless documents which travel electronically on a digital infrastructure built during President Bush’s time in office.  For the first time ever, a document was digitally transmitted from the Executive Branch to the Legislative Branch when the President submitted his FY09 eBudget eariler this month. It was digitally signed by the White House Executive Clerk with an unique authentication code which was successfully validated once it reached Capitol Hill.  Not only does this process increase efficiency, it also saves trees, time and resources.  As a result, GPO and GAO both announced that they were moving toward the paperless route, as well.

So, regardless of one’s party or personal politics – I am excited and anxious to see how the next President will build on the successes of our current one.  Especially since the candidates had to campaign so effectively online, they will definitely be expected to govern there in the same manner. 

Related

Wanted: A More Digital Congress  (NY Times Political Blog: The Caucus)

White House 2.0  (TechRepublican)

Politics Online Day 2: Morning Roundup  (Capitol Valley)

Politics Online Conference Day 2 – Morning Plenary  (The Spewker)

White House 2.0  (CDT: PolicyBeta)