Caption: The most prominent feature of Presidency Obama's new Whitehouse.gov site: a assure that change has come to America, and an oversize photo of Obama. On left, the outgoing Bush administration's site as of Tues morning.
As President-elect Barack Obama began his inaugura l address at noon on Tuesday, his aides were busy switching over Whitehouse.gov.
Until 11:59 am EST, the Web site featured a photograph of former president George W. Bush leaving the White House for the last time. The relaunched site's most prom inent feature is an oversize photo of the new president next to the slogan: "Change has come to America."
Because the presidential Web site launched under Bill Clinton's tenure, this is only the second time that Whitehouse.gov has changed hands . The Clinton-Bush handover was not without problems: The site on January 20, 2001, briefly sported the line "Insert Something Meaningful Here," and suffered from some unkept links and 4 04 errors.
Obama's new site, too, has its bugs. The site administrators posted an entry saying Obama "was sworn in" before that happened; another post titled "Read the Inaugural Address" was blank an hour after Obama finished giving it; some photo captions were incorrect; and the search alternative didn't work reliably.
If you're inter ested in reading the inaugural address, our CBSNews.com sister site has posted the full text.
The White Domiciliate also now has what it calls a b log, something that Bush didn't have, except for occasional features like his "Trip Notes" during an foreign visit. Vino Phillips, the Pedagogue House's director of new media and one of the blog contributors, said in a post that "Whitehouse.gov is just the kickoff of the new administration's efforts to expand and deepen this online engagement" in making this the most "open and transparent" administration in history. Phillips also asks for comments from the public through a Web form.
At least i n its initial incarnation, the White House blog seems to be more a collection of press releases (a proclamation of a day of reconciliation) and Obama statements (remarks at a speech on Monday, and Tuesday's i naugural address). There is no opportunity to comment, the person posting the item is not automatically identified, and it doesn't include "trackbacks," meaning distance to identify who else is talkin g about the entry.
On bailiwick policy, the new administration promises to support Net neutrality, encourage the development of Internet-filtering technologies for parents "while preservi ng the First Amendment," and "strengthen privacy protections for the Digital Age." In an echo of Obama's expedition Web site, it says intellectual-property owners should be "fairly treated," patch copyright and patent laws should be updated.
The White House lists names of appointees for Cabinet positions, including well-known ones like Hillary Clinton for secretary of state and lesser-known ones equal Robert Nab ors for deputy budget director. But it incomprehensible the opportunity to post photos and even brief biographies of each of the nominees.
It does lineament a reasonably flattering official biography of the outgoing President Bush, expression he worked "to create an ownership society and build a future of security, prosperity, and opportunity for all Americans. He signed into law tax relief that helped workers keep more of th eir hard-earned money" and took steps "to protect our homeland and create a world free from terror."
Elsewhere, though, another Web page lambastes Bush's "unconscionable ineptitude" in responding to Hurricane Katrina and promises that such a "catastrophic failure" will never happen again.
Cheers~
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