Some important developments have taken place at both the campaign's website and the administration's transition website. I will discuss the information at the transition website in a few paragraphs, as it outlines where the administration wants to take the internet in the next few years. First, though, there is news about where the campaign has taken the internet over the past couple of years. This news is promising. The campaign website grew into a vast multifaceted network of groups. The unasked question, however, is what would happen to that network once the campaign ended.
At the recent "Organizing of the President" talks led by The Field's Al Giordano in Madison and Chicago, concern about what will happen next in the organizing movements generated by this campaign include calls for local organizers to preserve and grow the networks launched at My.BarackObama. Had My.BarackObama gone away before organizers could act, much of this infrastructure would be gone.
At My.BarackObama, Chris Hughes posted a statement saying the groups formed over the past couple of years will continue to exist.
What has made My.BarackObama unique hasn't been the technology itself, but the people who used the online tools to coordinate offline action. My.BarackObama has always been focused on using online tools to make real-world connections between people who are hungry to change our politics in this country.
And the site isn't going anywhere. The online tools in My.BarackObama will live on. Barack Obama supporters will continue to use the tools to collaborate and interact. Our victory on Tuesday night has opened the door to change, but it's up to all of us to seize this opportunity to bring it about.
What and how the new administration will do to maintain or grow My.BarackObama over the coming year remains to be seen, but the vast online infrastructure of the campaign appears to be something the incoming president wants to live on.
I wrote some ideas a few weeks ago about some of the ways an Obama Administration might try to use its army of mobilized voters, activists, and bloggers. My thoughts were that this community organizer-turned-president wasn't satisfied mobilizing people to simply win office. Instead, I suspected he had strategies to use this mass movement to enact legislative change by pressuring senators coming up for re-election in 2010. (He also, I suspected, wanted to use this mass movement to get people to pressure him into acting on particular issues. As a community organizer, Barack Obama understands the power of leverage, that one person acting alone is not as powerful as a movement. Now he is offering the movement of the netroots the opportunity to push him on the policies that affect us. It is refreshing to have a president who doesn't cringe when people oppose him, and even moreso one who encourages forums to debate and dissent on important issues of the day.)
It is heartening to see that the new president intends to preserve those forums. At the very least, people engaged in the campaign who want to continue working with the networks created over the past couple of years, can continue to rely upon My.BarackObama to continue their work. This work, as a reminder, could be to organize to pressure the new president to pursue better policies. Recall that the largest My.BarackObama group was the one urging him to change his position on the FISA reform that went through last year. People concerned with the future of FISA could continue at My.BarackObama to advocate for a greater check on executive power using the network already in place.
Activists could also turn to a new, potentially powerful outlet to make demands of President-Elect Obama -- his transition website change.gov. It is at change.gov that we see the new administration's vision of the internet. When the site went online earlier this week, it included several agenda agenda pages spanning a wide list of goals for the days and months ahead. Items described will be familiar to readers of Obama's campaign site's issues page, including energy, the environment, health care, rural issues, civil rights, foreign policy, urban policy (of which I will write about in some detail soon), immigration, and technology issues. I encourage readers to visit the various agenda pages, and discuss how to lobby the new president on particular issues important to you. (You can lobby him here.) This early, formative period could set the tone for the next decade. If we remain active and engaged, it could make a world of difference.
What follows is a select list from the technology portion of the new administration's agenda. It is intended to inform, so we can quickly generate support for the ideas we like, opposition for the ideas we oppose, a sense of priorities we want the administration to take, and perhaps the beginnings of building pressure on swayable members of Congress when it comes time to convert the proposals into actual legislation.
NOTE: The following is NOT a comprehensive list of items listed at the site, merely a few I thought had particular relevance to the future of the internet. I encourage you to read the full statement at change.gov.
* 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.
* Encourage Diversity in Media Ownership: Barack Obama believes that the nation’s rules ensuring diversity of media ownership are critical to the public interest. Unfortunately, over the past several years, the Federal Communications Commission has promoted the concept of consolidation over diversity. As president, Obama will encourage diversity in the ownership of broadcast media, promote the development of new media outlets for expression of diverse viewpoints, and clarify the public interest obligations of broadcasters who occupy the nation’s spectrum.
* Protect Our Children While Preserving the First Amendment: We live in the most information-abundant age in history and the people who develop the skills to utilize its benefits are the people who will succeed in the 21st century. Obama values our First Amendment freedoms and our right to artistic expression and does not view regulation as the answer to these concerns. 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. To further protect children online, Obama and Biden support tough penalties, increased enforcement resources and forensic tools for law enforcement, and collaboration between law enforcement and the private sector to identify and prosecute people who abuse the Internet to try to exploit children.
* Safeguard our Right to Privacy: The open information platforms of the 21st century can also tempt institutions to violate the privacy of citizens. As president, Barack Obama will strengthen privacy protections for the digital age and will harness the power of technology to hold government and business accountable for violations of personal privacy.
* Open Up Government to its Citizens: The Bush Administration has been one of the most secretive, closed administrations in American history. Our nation’s progress has been stifled by a system corrupted by millions of lobbying dollars contributed to political campaigns, the revolving door between government and industry, and privileged access to inside information-all of which have led to policies that favor the few against the public interest. An Obama presidency will use cutting-edge technologies to reverse this dynamic, creating a new level of transparency, accountability and participation for America's citizens.
* Bring Government into the 21st Century: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will use technology to reform government and improve the exchange of information between the federal government and citizens while ensuring the security of our networks. Obama and Biden believe in the American people and in their intelligence, expertise, and ability and willingness to give and to give back to make government work better. Obama will appoint the nation's first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to ensure that our government and all its agencies have the right infrastructure, policies and services for the 21st century. The CTO will ensure the safety of our networks and will lead an interagency effort, working with chief technology and chief information officers of each of the federal agencies, to ensure that they use best-in-class technologies and share best practices.
* Deploy Next-Generation Broadband: Barack Obama believes that America should lead the world in broadband penetration and Internet access. As a country, we have ensured that every American has access to telephone service and electricity, regardless of economic status, and Obama will do likewise for broadband Internet access. Obama and Biden believe we can get true broadband to every community in America through a combination of reform of the Universal Service Fund, better use of the nation’s wireless spectrum, promotion of next-generation facilities, technologies and applications, and new tax and loan incentives..
* Protect American Intellectual Property Abroad: The Motion Picture Association of America estimates that in 2005, more than nine of every 10 DVDs sold in China were illegal copies. The U.S. Trade Representative said 80 percent of all counterfeit products seized at U.S. borders still come from China. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will work to ensure intellectual property is protected in foreign markets, and promote greater cooperation on international standards that allow our technologies to compete everywhere.
* Protect American Intellectual Property at Home: Intellectual property is to the digital age what physical goods were to the industrial age. Barack Obama believes we need to update and reform our copyright and patent systems to promote civic discourse, innovation and investment while ensuring that intellectual property owners are fairly treated.
* Reform the Patent System: A system that produces timely, high-quality patents is essential for global competitiveness in the 21st century. By improving predictability and clarity in our patent system, we will help foster an environment that encourages innovation. Giving the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) the resources to improve patent quality and opening up the patent process to citizen review will reduce the uncertainty and wasteful litigation that is currently a significant drag on innovation. As president, Barack Obama will ensure that our patent laws protect legitimate rights while not stifling innovation and collaboration.
* Lower Health Care Costs by Investing in Electronic Information Technology Systems: A key feature of Barack Obama and Joe Biden's health care plan is the use of health information technology to lower the cost of health care. Most medical records are still stored on paper, which makes them difficult to use to coordinate care, measure quality, or reduce medical errors. Processing paper claims also costs twice as much as processing electronic claims. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will invest $10 billion a year over the next five years to move the U.S. health care system to broad adoption of standards-based electronic health information systems, including electronic health records.
* Modernize Public Safety Networks: Barack Obama is committed to improving the information and communications technology used to support public safety from the antiquated 1970s and 1980s-based technology currently used by agencies around the country to a modern system that will enable us to respond to emergencies and natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. Obama and Biden will implement policies to:
o Spur the development and deployment of new technologies to promote interoperability, broadband access, and more effective communications among first responders and emergency response systems.
Much of this agenda is admirable stuff, though there may be points we will want to debate, and points we wish to emphasize above others. The key is to articulate this discussion to the new administration as quickly and as clearly as is possible.
Finally, a Bloomberg article from Election Day indicates the Obama Administration will attempt to slow or reverse the media deconsolidation of the past dozen years.
President-elect Barack Obama will try to use his office to hinder media concentration and to increase local TV news coverage, objectives that have stirred resistance from industry groups...Obama has also made broader Internet access a goal and insisted that broadcasters focus more on public service. In a statement to the FCC last year, he called for "new rules promoting greater coverage of local issues and greater responsiveness of broadcasters to the communities they operate in...."
Obama also wants to "revitalize the debate" about the gap between those with high-speed Internet access and those without, William Kennard, the last Democratic chairman of the FCC and an Obama adviser, told a forum sponsored by the non-partisan Media Access Project, a Washington-based non-profit public law firm.
"Let's lay down broadband lines through the heart of inner cities and rural towns all across America," Obama said as he announced his candidacy in February 2007.
Taken together, these ideas represent the most progressive policies by an administration on the media in decades. They do, however, threaten to take power out of the hands of some very powerful and wealthy interests, interests that control the mass media. Enacting these policies will take a battle, and if we support them, we should be ready to organize. My.BarackObama still exists for such organization, and providing immediate feedback at change.gov will give the President-Elect an early idea of what -- and how much -- the online community values these proposals.
If we do not act now, perhaps the government will conclude these issues are not terribly important. With the economy in turmoil, two wars still active, and health care costs soaring out of control, it would be very easy for these issues to go on the back burner. Once they are de-emphasized, they may stay that way for the rest of Obama's presidency. That would be a sad waste of this rare opportunity.
As another candidate for the presidency said, it doesn't have to be that way. Time is the reason urgent action is needed on Obama's internet policy proposals. Talk to the incoming administration and let them know what you want, what you will pressure them to do, and what you are willing to talk to your representatives in Congress about. Now is the best opportunity we will ever have to advance a progressive agenda on the internet. Let's demand from our elected leaders -- including President-Elect Obama -- the changes this nation deserves.
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