Change.gov just went live with this: Open for questions.
Hey y'all... Assuming this will be taken seriously by the campaign and used seriously by responsible people (I've got no reason to believe it won't be on either count, although it doesn't seem troll-proof), this is the government we've been waiting for.
Before I go into the substance, I just want to say how impressive Obama's e-team has been. It's obvious that they have been thinking about how to leverage technology for a long time. From the innovative use of YouTube, to my.barackobama.com, to this... Well, for the first time in a long time it really seems as if public involvement - citizenship - is going to be valued in Washington.
flip for more thoughts about how we can use Open for questions.
As many of you know, I took a small role in opposing last summer's FISA legislation by effectively using MyBArackObama.com's social networking tools. The group grew quickly and even gave Barack Obama reason to address us at last year's NetRoots Nation. None of that would have happened if Obama hadn't afforded us the opportunity to organize on his own campaign web site.
Well... it looks as if MyBarackObama.com was the tip of the ice-berg in terms of Obama's commitment to providing the citizenry of this country with the tools necessary to influence and dialogue with its government.
Open for questions is the next step. It's a tool that allows us to ask questions and vote on each other's questions. I'm assuming that the top questions will be addressed by the President-elect at some time in the future.
From time to time, I've seen people long for the English Parliament version of "Question Time". I've got to say, this is even better. "Question time" too often devolves into a contest of empty wit; the opposition spends long hours spinning political questions; the PM parries with charm and humor, but not very much substance.
Open for questions is different - or at least has the potential to be. Essentially, it has turned every American that wants to participate into a journalist. Or an activist. Or a citizen.
But hey - that's not all. There is one more thing we need to cover. It's about us and our unique position.
These social networking tools are new to the vast majority of Americans. It's going to take them some time to learn to use these things effectively.
We don't have that problem. We are already, at a very minimum, readers of a group blog. Many of us are members. Many more have FaceBook accounts, belong to one or more google groups, subscribe and participate in email lists, etc.
What I'm getting at is that we are uniquely situated to be an early mover in terms of influencing the debate int his country. We can organize here or we can form a google group... But what we are specifically capable of doing is driving votes to Open for questions.
And we should be taking advantage of our position; it won't last very long.
Obama, it seems, is committed to dragging this country into the 21st Century. It won't be long before we blog-readers and social networkers are as ho-hum as today's cell-phone user. Remember, it wasn't too long ago that we looked at envy with the guy in the convertible with the 8 pound box held next to his ear. Time's change quickly; we need to press our advantage while we have it.
Finally - one more thing: I really hope Obama extends this tool to each of the agencies. I hope he requires his Cabinet picks to spend an hour each week fielding questions - this technology is really scalable.