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  Open-Sourcing the Oval Office

  Posted Friday, November 16, 2007 4:53 PM | By Chadwick Matlin

  Barack Obama just won the anonymous blog commenter vote. In his tech plan (PDF) released Wednesday, Obama pledged to give Americans “an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days before signing any non-emergency legislation.” I can hardly wait for the comment war between ObamaIsHott245 and BarackSux666.

  The initiative is a small piece of a progressive Obama plan that open-Internet advocates love. He wants to build digital literacy, outsource government problems to expert citizens (open-source style), and beef up the nation’s broadband infrastructure to compete globally. The White House message board, though, seems to be one of the most innovative pieces. It’s unclear whether President Obama would ever sit down and read these things, but an Obama spokesman told me it would emphasize that Americans have a digital seat around the legislative table. I doubt Obama's reasoning behind vetoing legislation would be, "The Internet told me to."

  Obama’s spokesman didn’t have details, though, about how the White House would moderate these posts. Imagine if an elementary school kid is surfing the Web to do research on the executive branch. He heads over to WhiteHouse.gov to do some research and sees a message inviting him to, “Tell President Obama what you think of the immigration legislation on his desk!” God only knows what he’ll see when he clicks on the link.

  Filed under: Barack Obama, technology

About Chadwick Matlin

• Chadwick Matlin is the staff reporter for Slate's The Big Money, a new business site launching in the fall. He can be reached at Chadwick.Matlin+TH@gmail.com

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