Politics and Technology Featured Article

Obama to Technologically Revolutionize the White House

By Jessica Kostek, TMCnet Channel Editor

According to NDN think tank president Simon Rosenberg, the Obama White House will use the Internet and its capabilities just as FDR used the radio to connect to the nation. America is now shadowing history book tales of the Great Depression. Some Americans have hope that President-elect Barack Obama will bring with him his own New Deal to the White House.

 

"Senator Obama just ran the first true campaign of the 21st Century using these internet tools to help organize his supporters and fight on a new battlefield of modern politics,” said Rosenberg, a veteran of former president Bill Clinton's 1992 election campaign.

 

"He reinvented the model of advocacy," he added.

 

Rosenberg commented that the incoming administration had significantly revamped political communications in the country and lowered America’s general assumption that the common man or woman couldn’t be heard in the world of politics.

 

"It allows a much more meaningful participation by our citizens in their politics and democracy. We saw an enormous surge of civic participation in America this year, in terms of people giving money and voting.

 

"All future campaigns in America will be run on this people-based internet model Obama ran," he said

 

Rosenberg continued by saying the 21st-century tools will bring "an enormous reinvention" of the US presidency, as the radio did in the first half of the last century.

 

"FDR was using the radio in a very powerful way to establish his power in his country.”

 

The traditions still stands, every Saturday morning the president broadcasts a radio address.

 

"My assumption is that it will now be a YouTube (News - Alert) address that will be translated in the principal languages of the world: Spanish, French, Arabic, Farsi and others. This way the president will be addressing not only his own citizens but the citizens of the world.”

 

If Obama does follow through with what many believe he will do with technology, Rosenberg’s vision of having a YouTube address would not only connect the American with the world of politics but, it could potentially clean the tarnished image that the United States has around the world—especially if it is translated into various languages.

 

However, if a YouTube address does become a reality, "It's going to be exciting to some governments, not so exciting to others,” Rosenberg said.

 

Although, Obama’s technology revolution in the White House is speculation, it isn’t at all too far-fetched. It’s anyone’s guess as to what may or may not happen.

Jessica Kostek is a channel editor for TMCnet, covering VoIP, CRM, call center and wireless technologies. To read more of Jessica’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Jessica Kostek