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http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Reference_Shelf/News/...
Our government is blogging.
Cheers, F.
Unfortunately, many "e-Government" attempts need to be examined via the filter of 9/11 - a world in which a shoe, or 4 ounces of a liquid, is perceived as potentially taking hundreds of lives. It's understandable why the Secret Service may get a little jittery...
Sure I'm being nit-picky but I bet you come up with your own bureaucracy punchlines after thinking about it for just a moment.
p.s. it was great to meet you in person last year at Supernova.. shame I won't be there this year.
Ya I cant wait for Obama to expand the government some more. Hopefully we will be under constant surveilance like the brits. Gobama!
Fact is the business of Washington DC is communicating. Selling an idea a concept. Manipulating public opinion. I dare say, Scoble and his crowd are ignorant of the massive PR/Disinformation/Intelligence/Campaign/ complex that is the Washington DC region. From the "K" Street silk stocking Law firms to the Non-Profit organizations that are headquartered across the river in Alexandria they've been using technology to sell their messages for years. The "world" changed long ago in DC....it's just that these self anointed visionaries like Scoble can't imagine the world could function without their guidance.
As a consultant one of the questions I ask before going on site with every customer is "Am I allowed to bring in my cell phone which has a camera?" and still get places where I can't bring my phone on site with me. These are the same places my laptop (protected by anti-virus, firewall, anti-malware) is not allowed on the network as well.
No suprise government places aren't allowing cell phone cameras
speaking of "changing the world", I think this pretty much sums up McCain's view of technology
http://thismodernworld.com/4369
'“John McCain is aware of the Internet,” says Soohoo.'
@Steve: if I were going to be cynical about this (and.... I am), I would say that sure, the President has probably seen some incredible military technology that is years away, but as far as being nonplussed about Qik or Twitter? i'd say 1) he probably doesn't really understand the significance, and 2) he has (as Tom Tomorrow said in the link above) zero intellectual curiosity.
I can assure you that you are incorrect and the premise of Scoble's arguement is incorrect. The Congress-folk are aware of this stuff, and even amazed and/or amused by it but, as noted, they aren't allowed to use things as simple as laptops or cellphones in a live setting.
That's nice that they are aware of these tools, but until we can "tweet" feedback into a live Senate hearing it's all worthless. Our government is more worried about the potential security risks of basic technologies (cellphones and laptops) than they are interested in realizing their benefits. We are a loooong way off from anything we are starting to use now seriously penetrating the way gov't works.
http://www.centernetworks.com/live-streaming-br...
you have a chance at something most people would kill for.
days, those were the times when internet and cell phone were catching up in Indian. Mobiles were very costly and no one other than rich guys could have imagined having that now. I saw India growing, catching up the pace of technology, fighting poverty and infrastructure ...
Allen: the problem with HD videos is you need to edit them, compress them, upload them. We probably won't have them up until late next week because of that. So, you now have a choice. You can watch them live, but with low quality, or you can wait a week or two and see them in higher quality.
Jonathan: I guarantee you that Ryan and Culberson are looking at their Tweets while they are in session, so that's two members who can be live tweeted.
you ARE under constant surveilance like the brits, it is just that your government doesn't want to tell you
Barack Obama is solidifying (with discipline and expertise) the online winning principles that Dean (and others) contributed to building.
It's a new landscape, and a new disruptive frontier!
PR/Disinformation/Intelligence/Campaign/ complex...you forgot general Lobbyist, and Think Tank (Cato, Brookings, Heritage and such), and the Agenda-driven Advocacy Group PACs, all the Single-Issue Groups, State Governmental liaisons, Embassy Row and so on and so forth, everyone's looking for a pay-off, either (wisely) keeping government at bay, or directing stealing from the taxpayers and all the resulting national and international diplomacy from hence.
But see, Wash DC was years ahead of West Coast, it all filters military and works way into Langley and such, with real practical use, anyone spending much time on both coasts, would find that obvious. Wash DC has information as it's lifeblood, it's a vital thing, not a gadgetry geek tinker-toy tiddly-wink.
Lots of people confuse the availability of technology with the actual uses of technology. Paris Hilton was texting along using her Sidekick for awhile before it was so rudely hacked and her address book shared with all 100 million of her closest friends. Most public figures generally choose to avoid that kind of embarrassment and let their staffers get comfortable with the services first.
After about 20 years of doing this stuff, I'm pleased that the DNC has made bloggers a key part of their communications strategy during their conference in Denver. We've gathered them all together at
http://www.lastsecondstuff.com/bloggers
As for Bush being impressed by Qik and Twitter. Not how to accurately interprest that. For example, I'm always impressed when my 9 year old builds a winning pinewood derby car. Not all that evolutionary, but impressive none the less.
Scoble seems to have gone to D.C. expecting to see the congress not having moved past 1800. Is sort of sad to have his son leave the visit with the expectation that the fed govt is finally catching up to the geeks. Again, a naive percepetion. Afterall, this was a govt that was able to send a man to the moon with computers less powerfull than my kid's Nintendo DS. So, I gotta believe Twitter and Qik look laughable when put in context.
As for Bush's intellectual curiosity, neither you nor I know what his level is. All we have to go on is specualtion and commentary by the press. You'd just be hard pressed to convnice me that someone that has attained his level of success lacks intellectual curiosity. Either that, or you are suggesting the voting public has an IQ of about 80. (Which may be true, given Obamessiah's popularity based on no platform)
http://www.jer979.com/igniting-the-revolution/o...
I must say, while I look forward to a new era, I shudder to think how this administration would have approached technology if it truly understood it. I think we dodged a bullet.
"I shudder to think how this administration would have approached technology if it truly understood it. I think we dodged a bullet."
uhhhhh,,,,Huh? It was the previous administration that had all the technology they needed but chose to not act. They are the ones that dodged a bullet. Seems after suffering the consequences of the previous administration's ineptitude, through the use of technology this administration has done a pretty good job of dodging subsequential bullets.
Or are you suggesting that the govt. start using Twitter to respond to and track down Obama bin Laden when he uses Qik to make future propoganda videos?
We should remember though that government is very slow to change and the Twittering and Qiking and other social media loving government officials will be lone rangers for a while. The others, well, they just need a little encouragement and education. Personally, I think we should take advantage of every opportunity to connect with our elected official and show them technologies like Twitter, Pownce, Qik, etc, and show them it's not really that scary. Let them know that you, as a constituent, want them to use these technologies and it will make communicating with those they represent much easier and more transparent. Now is the time for open government and it's never ever been easier to do.
One last thing: one of the absolutely coolest things I saw happen this week in Washington news was Rep. John Culberson showing President Bush Twitter and President Bush listened to him. That is change! That is revolutionary. That is exciting.
Thanks Robert for doing these interviews. Very, very cool.
Now just try to imagine the elections of 2112
And one debates a proposition not another person
Oh and you know why Polaticians have pages/blackberrys it so the Whips can tell lthem how to vote and/or they can get the "line" on a particular issue from the party managers
er the US does have an 18th century policical system in a lot of ways the lack of true parties being one of the major mysteries to a lot of outsiders.
and some of the pork bareling and dubious conduct that goes on would land an MP in jail here.
But, people pick them up and keep doing their thing. The war in Iraq didn't stop, food prices didn't go down, etc.
I don't know whether the FCC should be killed off, because I don't know what force we could count on to keep tekkies themselves in check, along with their creations, given their scorn for representative democracy and the acceleration of their engineering. People hate the FCC when it doesn't do what they want, and like it when it does what they want.
I find it touching to think that people imagine if you can only get Bush to Twitter or Cheney to have a Facebook, the government will change. How silly. They have telephones and computers, and that didn't change them. Nor the people who elected them -- whom you were unable to persuade, even with your Internet and Youtubes.
All of this has to be watched very closely so that the technology and coders do not take away our freedoms under the guise of the new.
Aside from that - and as someone who works in and around the Capitol, the White House and other federal buildings - it is absolutely amazing the amount of technology, the little nuances that we take for granted creeping its way into our government. This campaign season I think has helped a lot to drive the technology to the forefront with all of the digital outreach from the candidates via Twitter, streaming services like Mogulus, Skype, Ustream, BlogTV, etc., Youtube, Myspace, LinkedIn and countless others. Candidates are blogging, the Library of Congress is blogging, and apparently Reps are ambushing the ambushers with THEIR cellphone video. It's truly amazing - and one can only hope that it isn't just a trendy thing that these folks are playing with - but stumbling steps towards transparency and opening up portals to the community. Twitter and Youtube aren't going to save the world - but they are going to allow people to see a lot of angles on things they otherwise wouldn't have seen. Politicians and government offices are going to use social media as a 'marketing tool' to share information, use it as a soapbox, voice their opinions, and campaign - which some would say is no different from using TV or any other medium, that they'll be selling us the same BS via the web - but like DIGG or Delicious or anything else - in a digital forum the people are the police - and to quote Christian Slater..."you gotta remember dear, I can smell a lie like a fart in a car"...and people can. When people smell bullshit they stop listening. They criticize. And that's the difference. In a digital forum - there are a lot more voices to help cancel out the polarized views we're used to on network television. In the meantime I just hope we all continue to have a lot of fun with it. The real human benefit of all of this social media "stuff" are the big three, "learn, teach, and share." If somehow this all opens up a better dialog between people and their representatives/government organizations then - fricken yeah! *Takes off rose colored social media glasses*...
Or its all trendy techy stuff and this is all bullshit. Its all going to come down to them marketing to us "the sheep" via another medium and we'll all keep generating a lot of noise in the background - some of which will be meaningful - a lot of which won't.
Good to see you Robert, exciting that you got to do this, looking forward to the HD video - Jonny and i appreciate and really enjoyed the interview with you and Gary V. Come back anytime...we'll show you how to get down in D.C. I know how much you like to dance. The interviews are up on my and Jonny's blogs.
The laptops on the Senate floor have been there for years - I purchased and installed some in 2003 (since replaced), and those were replacing laptops that had been there for at least 3 years prior.
And because I'm tired I'll comment on another post here as well.
"Only two congressmen use Macs. Out of 435 Representatives and 100 Senators."
There are more than two Mac using congressmen in the Senate alone, and Apple's presence has increased steadily over the past 5 or 6 years.