Comments on: Reality Check: There Will Be No Wiki White House, Dan

By: Jen Zingsheim

Jen Zingsheim — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:24:10 +0000

I’m going to categorize this along with a lot of the other rose-colored glasses stuff I’ve been seeing. Sure, it sounds great, but those suggestions are absolutely ridiculous to anyone who has ever worked in government (at any level I might add). It shows an almost hopeless naivete–seriously, publishing the calendar online? I would have thought that anyone with a rudimentary understanding of the risks presidents face would get the danger in that.

I’m wondering what is going to happen when reality sets in and people realize that the more things Change (TM) the more they stay the same? Some things will be different, very different, but there are real reasons that business is conducted the way it is at the WH. I think someone has seen too many “West Wing” episodes (or, maybe not enough?)

I remember reading somewhere that almost 80 percent of intelligence gathered is from publicly-available sources. I really don’t want even 5 percent of that to come from a more “open” White House. It’s too big a risk.

By: Craig Stoltz

Craig Stoltz — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:16:50 +0000

I agree with Mark [sorry Dan!]; a lot of what’s done with social media in friskier, frankly less consequential contexts won’t work in the world of federal policy/politics in motion.

At the risk of self-promotion, I’ve aruged that the question isn’t about how Obama uses social media, it’s about how his supporters do: “It’s not 2.Obama, It’s You.0.” http://xrl.us/oyypd

By: David Wescott

David Wescott — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:52:04 +0000

government wiki’s have been tried – David Milliband put one together when he was Ag Minister under Blair and had to pull it down after conservative bloggers essentially hijacked it. I think an Obama WH will probably encourage more input/feedback but I’m not convinced that feedback will always appear immediately on the screen. The real question – will those who give input feel like there’s an adequate response? We’ll see. The media will matter, but the feeling that your government is responding to you will matter more.

I do think we can expect blogs like DipNote to take on a bit more prominence, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if there were internal wiki’s – there probably already are. The real difference I think will be working with third parties and making WH content more portable. I totally agree with you re: “pull” and driving traffic. A raw number is not a major concern and it shouldn’t be a strategic goal.

By: Geoff Livingston

Geoff Livingston — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:40:22 +0000

I have to agree with you, Mark. There’s a great enthusiasm for social governance, but a lack of pragmatic understanding about the inner workings of government to really get the massive change it would require. Thus many fanboys will be disappointed.