The Coming Digital Presidency

Ranjit Mathoda writes "Marc Andreeson, the cofounder of Netscape, met Senator Barack Obama in early 2007. Mr. Andreeson recalls, "In particular, the Senator was personally interested in the rise of social networking, Facebook, Youtube, and user-generated content, and casually but persistently grilled us on what we thought the next generation of social media would be and how social networking might affect politics — with no staff present, no prepared materials, no notes. He already knew a fair amount about the topic but was very curious to actually learn more." As a social organizer and a lover of new technologies, Mr. Obama could be expected to make good use of such tools in getting elected, and he has done so. What may not be as obvious is that Mr. Obama appears to have a keen interest in using such technologies in the act of governing. And whether Mr. Obama becomes president, or Mrs. Clinton or Mr. McCain do, these new tools have the potential to transform how government operates."

Comments

Re:Digital Presidency? more like FARKING SPAMMER

[$RANDOMLUSER]

You have GOT to be kidding. You're actually using a Google search of news.admin.net-abuse.email for "barack obama" as some kind of "evidence" of something? news.admin.net-abuse.email is the preferred home newsfroup of every k00k, forger, impostor, sock-puppet and whack-job on Usenet. It's the home of countless flame-wars, ridiculous accusations and general raving stupidity. My god, I wear a tinfoil hat AND a condom when I read that group. If that's the best you've got, then you should just go back under your bridge, troll.

Re:What's the REAL significance of any of this?

[BobMcD]

Ron Paul is a cautionary counterexample; It's all very well building up grassroots support on the Internet, but if your grassroots comprises a mishmash of troofers, stoppers, lunatics, antisemites, conspiracy theorists, naive libertarians, politically vacuous "fuck the system" types, and a spattering of basement-bound non-voting teenagers and various other subcultures and social outcasts entirely ill at ease with Middle America, then it's (as we kept trying to tell them) not going to be enough. Pardon me, but I really must call bullshit on this characterization. I realize that this impression of Ron Paul's support is what you were SUPPOSED to believe, but having been a part of the revolution first hand, I'm here to tell you that it's all a bunch of crap. You'd have exactly the same level of accuracy by saying that all of Obama's supporters are teenage muslim fundamentalist spear-chuckers.

The truth is, the internet is simply far too easy to marginalize. THAT is the cautionary tale. To win in politics you need the support of CBS, Fox News, CNN, the New York Times, and the like. Forget YouTube. It may as well actually be a water slide for all the impact it actually has on anything - today.

The political realm is still well in the hands of the digital immigrants. Perhaps in another iteration or two we'll get to see the impact of what those digital natives can do, but I some how doubt it. Until the mass-media can find a viable way of controlling the tubes, they will always be dissonant against its message. And frankly folks, Joe Sixpack still doesn't trust what he reads about online more than he does the idiot box.

Bad Summary line.

[thesolo]

The summary currently reads, "And whether Mr. Obama becomes president, or Mrs. Clinton or Mr. McCain do, these new tools have , by the People and for the People communicates and operates."

It should be (as stated in TFA), "And whether Mr. Obama becomes president, or Mrs. Clinton or Mr. McCain do, these new tools have the potential to transform how a government of the People, by the People and for the People communicates and operates."

Kind of a big difference there.

Re:Which is why Obama won't have my vote

[illegalcortex]

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/technology/

Protect Our Children While Preserving the First Amendment
[...]
Obama values our First Amendment freedoms and our right to artistic expression and does not view regulation as the answer to these concerns. Instead, an Obama administration will give parents the tools and information they need to control what their children see on television and the Internet in ways fully consistent with the First Amendment.
[...]
Safeguard our Right to Privacy
[...]
To ensure that powerful databases containing information on Americans that are necessary tools in the fight against terrorism are not misused for other purposes, Barack Obama supports restrictions on how information may be used and technology safeguards to verify how the information has actually been used.
[...]
Protect the Openness of the Internet
A key reason the Internet has been such a success is because it is the most open network in history. It needs to stay that way. Barack Obama strongly supports the principle of network neutrality to preserve the benefits of open competition on the Internet.

Re:That's cool, and yet not

[SanityInAnarchy]

On the other hand, I really don't like the idea of whitehouse.gov becoming a government-run myspace which encourages people to give the government even more personal information about themselves.

How about one which encourages government officials to give people information about themselves?

He's talking about doing basically the opposite of what you (and others) seem to be assuming. And it is one of the cooler ideas I have seen in awhile -- one which none of the other candidates seem to have caught on to.

Re:A bit presumptuous, no?

[flitty]

Very interesting defense of Rev. Wright from Mike Huckabee

"[Y]ou can't hold the candidate responsible for everything that people around him may say or do," Huckabee says. "It's interesting to me that there are some people on the left who are having to be very uncomfortable with what ... Wright said, when they all were all over a Jerry Falwell, or anyone on the right who said things that they found very awkward and uncomfortable, years ago. Many times those were statements lifted out of the context of a larger sermon. Sermons, after all, are rarely written word for word by pastors like Rev. Wright, who are delivering them extemporaneously, and caught up in the emotion of the moment. There are things that sometimes get said, that if you put them on paper and looked at them in print, you'd say 'Well, I didn't mean to say it quite like that.'" Later, he defended Wright's anger, too: "As easy as it is for those of us who are white to look back and say 'That's a terrible statement!' ... I grew up in a very segregated South. And I think that you have to cut some slack -- and I'm gonna be probably the only conservative in America who's gonna say something like this, but I'm just tellin' you -- we've gotta cut some slack to people who grew up being called names..."

Re:A bit presumptuous, no?

[NevermindPhreak]

Obama's preacher is a racist, a white person voting for him would be like a black person voting for a white man whose preacher is a Klansman. Actually, McCain's preacher said a lot worse stuff. Obama's preacher's words were mostly taken out of context. McCain may be able to spin a lot of fights, but I don't think that's one he wants to go near.

Myself, I'll be voting either Green or Libertarian, depending on who's on the ballot in Illinois. Mine will be a protest vote against our Corporate-owned government. We, the people, have been left out of the loop for far too long. There stands to be between two and four supreme court justices retiring in the next presidency cycle. So, there stands to be either 2-4 new Democratic SCJs, or 2-4 new Republican SCJs. It could mean the reversal of Roe vs. Wade*, among other things. Even if you are Green or Libertarian, it is in your best interest to vote for your "lesser of two evils".

Also, if you feel your opinion is being left out of the process, then join the process. Find your local events. I'd suggest trying to get people to support Instant Runnoff voting, so that Greens and Libertarians can gain some footing in this nation.

*I am neither in full support nor fully against abortion. However, making a 100% no-abortions law is not the solution to that debate.

Re:What's the REAL significance of any of this?

[RKBA]

"Ron Paul is a cautionary counterexample; It's all very well building up grassroots support on the Internet, but if your grassroots comprises a mishmash of troofers, stoppers, lunatics, antisemites, conspiracy theorists, naive libertarians, politically vacuous "fuck the system" types, and a spattering of basement-bound non-voting teenagers and various other subcultures and social outcasts entirely ill at ease with Middle America, then it's (as we kept trying to tell them) not going to be enough."

I'm a 62 year old retired computer programmer (although I've held many different job titles during my 40 year career) who has been married for many years. My wife and I changed our voter registration from Libertarian to Republican just so my wife and I could vote for Ron Paul. We also contributed a total of $4,600 to Dr. Paul's campaign, and we do NOT live in a basement. We've always paid cash for everything (including our home, cars, and everything else we own), and have no debts of any kind. Can you say the same?

If anyone ever read the Constitution anymore, or even was knowledgeable about history (NOT the pseudo history that's taught in our government propaganda indoctrination camps - aka; public schools), all the crooks and CFR shills (including Obama) that have committed treason against the United States Constitution and against "We The People" by trying to rule us instead of representing us, would have been hanged long ago. Unfortunately, ignorance of history and of the founding of our Republic, and even belief in religious fairy tales about gods and other superstitions all overwhelming predominate over reason, even here on SlashDot.

The name's Andreessen

[the_other_chewey]

OK, someone has to lose his geek card here. Misspelling the name of one of the
Netscape cofounders is pretty high on the "how to look like an idiot on /." list.

His name's Andreessen, Marc Andreessen.

Re:A bit presumptuous, no?

[NeutronCowboy]

Easy there, tiger. Have you read the actual sermons? The WHOLE kaboodle? I read a few of them. Including the ones from where the quotes were lifted that are supposed to show how racist and hateful and unpatriotic Wright is. While I found them to be sometimes strongly worded, and not something I'd agree with without reservation, they were also quite spot on in their commentary. Not to mention that the quotes, when surrounded by their context, really do not mean what some people tried to make them mean.

In short, the church didn't tell anyone to hate Whitey, and certainly not every week. Which means that there was really nothing to get so offended about you'd have to walk out. Not to mention that the Church is a good chunk of your community. You attend church to participate in your community. Switching church means switching community. It's just not as easy as a lot of people make it sound like.

Re:Fuck.

[UncleTogie]

How do you propose to deal with the "inexperienced" card that will come up?

In a news mag I read on a flight recently {can't remember which one, THINK it was dated 'round Mar. 8th... hope another /.er can help here...} They had a graph showing the amount of experience every president since Washington had before taking the office of President. Check Lincoln, for example. As a freshman in Congress, popped off at the mouth and really pissed off his constituents. Felt he had to quit. Went back to law practice, ran for President as an underdog in 1860. Won. Bet you know the rest...