A Coat of Paint for the White House

by J. Butler, Applecore Content Development Specialist

It started on January 20^th, at 12:01 PM, as President Barack Obama rose to take the oath of allegiance (never mind that he’d be doing a repeat later). Perhaps only a little blip on the fast-moving radar of cyber-space—but a huge step for social media.

Launched mere minutes after the official beginning of Barack Obama's Presidency, the White House now has a blog.

The first entry was attributed to Macon Phillips, the Director for New Media for the White House. The list of entries—as of this posting—is modest, but just by existing it makes the point loud and clear: this is going to be a Presidency unlike any that’s come before it. 

The blog wastes no time in outlining exactly what its purpose will be: to support Obama’s commitment to “…making his administration the most open and transparent in history.”

To say this is an incredible step is an understatement. The President's executive orders and proclamations will be publicly published in a forum that everyone has access to, at least theoretically. True, within two hours of swearing in, President Obama had issued an official proclamation, posted for everyone to read. One aspect of the blog will be videos, sound clips and pictures from the President’s Administration, a promise quickly followed by having the video and full text of his inaugural speech up by the next day.

One important thing to notice about the blog? It’s filled with one word that stands out: “we.” And if that isn’t the perfect word to sum up social media, I don’t know what is.