It seems that while the IDEA is a good one, the execution is reminiscent of the previous (Bush) administration. The top rated item was summarily deleted. The alleged reason was that it was "backward looking". The issue is that there has not been a credible account offered for the 911 Terrorist attacks. No one has been brought to justice, no one has been censured or demoted for alleged "failures". The specter of further terrorist attacks has been and continues to be USED politically in an ongoing way to promote violations of our Constitution, human rights, and the common good. This is not a dead issue. Given the reported threats of new and even more devastating attacks, it is timely to get to the bottom of the matter. The Zelikow 911 Whitewash Commission Report has been discredited. Unless Change.Org changes its ways and begins to function in an above board manner, we have to see it as a continuation of business as usual and cover-up.
Please let me know what you, as journalists, plan to do about this "bait and switch" travesty.
Fred Cook
San Francisco, CA
<doingdemocracy@igc.org>
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But maybe Obama, who espoused openness on the campaign trail, should just hang on to his BlackBerry and not worry about what historians think. (NEWSWEEK's Jonathan Alter believes that's the right way to go.) Ellen Miller, director of the Sunlight Foundation, which advocates for government transparency, expects technology in an Obama administration will have two components: transparency and connectedness. Transparency means using technology to open the windows of government, allowing all Americans with a computer to supervise the officials they've elected, starting with Obama. The president-elect has talked about crafting a user-friendly portal where people could look up and comment on legislation before he signs it.
Connectedness, Miller says, means allowing people outside government to have a bigger role in crafting policy (or at least feel like they have a bigger role). It might mean a period of a few days for open comments on newly passed legislation before Obama signs it into law, or administration-sponsored wiki Web sites that would let users make suggestions on budget bills, which are often notoriously opaque. One example that already exists is a privately run "social action" Web site called Change.org. An idea board on the site allows users to make suggestions, then other users give an up or down vote on what has been put forward, much like on the news and article aggregation Web site Digg.com. "Close Guantánamo prison camp," is currently the top-rated idea.
The trick for Obama will be to lead the Netroots movement rather than be led by it. Tapscott, the author of "Grown Up Digital," thinks there's a real risk of backlash if the kids who supported Obama feel their hero has let them down. "If he betrays this generation, the protests of the '60s will look like a tea party," Tapscott says. But Markos Moulitsas, captain of the liberal blog DailyKos.com and an occasional NEWSWEEK contributor, doesn't think Obama's base would turn on him. "If they get disillusioned, they'll probably just become apathetic again," he says. "I couldn't see disappointed supporters becoming enraged against him. "
Whatever the risks, the president-elect has made it clear he wants all those voices at the table, building a grass-roots-style government that won't always agree with him. That could mean tens of millions of voices, all with different thoughts and priorities, constantly fighting for one man's ear. One thing we sometimes overlook in our tech-obsessed culture is that technology in and of itself doesn't automatically speed things up. It could, in fact, slow things down.
With Barrett Sheridan
© 2008
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