OPEN GOVERNMENT
(Posted 2008-11-07 14:03:34 by ArchPaladin)

There is a philosophy known as open government [
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_government ] [wikipedia.org] that I
didn't think I'd ever get a chance to see.

I bring this up because I came across the president-elect's new website [
http://change.gov/ ] [change.gov] today.  It is interesting to see that
Obama has spent a lot more resources and manpower establishing an online
presence than his predecessors or former competitors.  This is the result
of a natural evolution rather than an aberration.  Howard Dean's campaign
in 2004 had a very large online grassroots component that many people stood
up and took note of.  Combine this with Obama's relative youth to other
politicians (ie. greater familiarity with technology), and it would make
sense that we would see high use of modern communication methods.

One thing that is surprising to me is that this openness has apparently
continued despite his winning the election.  I suppose that whatever
corruption Obama will be subject to during his time in office, it
apparently hasn't set in enough yet to cause him to play close to the
chest.  I am hoping this trend of openness continues, although we will have
to wait and see what happens during his first few months in office before
making any solid predictions.  One thing that will really be of interest is
to see if all this alleged openness goes away as soon as Obama's
administration realizes that they can't renege on past policy stances
without leaving behind evidence.  Once you put it on the net, it's there
forever.

Granted, sites like the one I linked to can easily be turned into
propaganda pieces.  Like all things, grains of salt must be applied.

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