What should be Barack Obama’s resolutions for the New Year once he takes office? He needs to look no further than his transition Website, Change.gov, where more than 74,031 people have submitted more than 53,369 questions (and counting) for his administration and voted 3,122,015 times to prioritize the questions in a Digg-like fashion.
Part of his Open Government initiatives, the Open for Questions part of the site is powered by Google Moderator. (You need to sign in with a Google account to ask questions or vote).
Below are ten of the top questions culled from different topic sections (economy, national security, science and technology, healthcare, etc.). Obama’s resolutions for the new year should be to answer them.
1. “What strategies other than bailouts can we employ to keep jobs in America?” (Economy)
2. “How do we unlink from our addiction to fossil fuels?” (Economy)
3. “When will President Obama start doing drawback of the Service Members (troops) from Iraq and Afghanistan? It becomes a stress on the families, the soldiers and divorce rates are high.” (Foreign Policy)
4. “What will the Obama administration [do] to create a fair, balanced diplomatic resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?” (Foreign Policy)
5. “Will President Obama eliminate domestic warrantless wiretapping of US citizens by modifying the “Terrorist Surveillance Program” (TSP)? Is the Fourth Amendment going to be restored, or weakened further by the Obama Administration?” (National Security)
6. “Our current war on drugs is failing America. Billions of dollars are spent on a losing campaign. Our prisons are overflowing with people that don’t deserve to be there. What is the government going to do in an effort to fix this major problem?” (National Security)
7. “How will the Obama Administration encourage the future generations of Americans to become the worlds leading scientists and engineers?” (Science And Technology)
8. “During the campaign Mr. Obama stated that he would appoint a government Chief Technology Officer. This seemed to me a very good idea; when we will learn more about this and how we can help with this endeavor?” (Science And Technology)
9. “no child left behind is a dismal failure. how can we create a real education act, with proper funding, to make students creative, life-long learners instead of teaching to a test?” (Education)
10. “What will your administration do to provide truly universal, affordable healthcare for all US citizens, regardless of employment status?” (Healthcare)
And here are five more bonus questions:
1. “Please do something about the cost of prescription drugs!” (Healthcare)
2. “What is the stance of the Obama administration on making college tuition tax deductible? (Education)
3. “How does the Obama administration plan on addressing the urgent need for Net Neutrality legislation? Vague platitudes mean nothing when the nature of the most powerful network in human history is at stake.” (Science And Technology)
4. “Does your administration plan to stop or at least reduce the federal subsidies to the oil and gas industry and apply these to alternative energy sources?” (Energy and Environment)
5. “Why are we continuing to use taxpayer money for the bad policy of subsidizing and mandating ethanol production from corn? It does nothing to reduce our fossil fuel usage (many scientists say that it increases usage) and it drives up food prices.” (Energy and Environment)
Interesting use of technology. However, this tool was developed for Google product management discussions, not governing the USA.
There is little way for the Change.gov team to know who is asking the question.
Are they a US Citizen?
Where do they live?
What ethnicity, gender, age?
What group are they part of?
Bottom line, this is a “fun” tool to name a puppy, but not to solve the middle east crisis.
Shaun Dakin
@EndTheRobocalls
@IsCool
Does it matter?
of course it does…it is called question profiling…it could be Bin Laden asking things…
Isn’t the whole point to create engagement? If Bin Laden was speaking to the US future President might that lead to solutions preferable to violence? I see no downside in facilitating questions, wherever they come from (and I am not a US citizen either but I do share the world with the US)
I am having fun…not serious..
Everyone else over sleeping from partying all night and TC is working… I thought I was the only one who feels its good luck to work-in the new year!
365/27 TC, thank for not letting me down when I came here for my morning read.
I’m glad he’s doing it – even if it is imperfect (in that the tools were developed by Google – as pointed out) at least, let’s point out that here’s a channel to express opinions and develop a set of KPI’s to measure how Obama’s administration will perform.
Interesting post Eric. A lot of challenging and important questions. A good use of technology to get feedback from the masses.
i too appreciate the morning read. the work ethic at TC unquestionable.
1# biggest question not mentioned. when is Obama gonna reign in on the oil companies. they hurt alot of people. physically, mentally, emotionally, financially. in the name of greed during a time of war. 14 billion 3rd quarter 08 setting world record.
OneLocator.com – One Right, One Wrong.
Thank goodness for the oil companies, a bright spot in our economy. If you don’t like the big mean oil companies, just stop driving your car and using plastics, in fact, go live in a cave.
bright spot of organized crime, conspiracy, racketeering, price fixing and greed, all during a time of war.
Only problem is that oil companies use taxpayer money to reduce the cost of the supply – so they can enrich themselves. Consider the hundreds of billions we spend keeping oil flowing in the Middle East and befriending the subjugating, misogynistic Saudis. That’s your and my money being spent (and lives being lost). Supply and Demand is good IF the true cost of the supply is built in.
If that isn’t enough, how much is global warming costing us? That cost should be built in too…
Let’s do capitalism the right way!
@TrollLocator.com Damon’s got you pegged man. If you don’t like the mean old oil companies don’t use their product. It’s a simple equation of supply and demand. Would you rather they saunter up to the public teat that has become the US government?
He also said live in a cave. Which is exactly what you would be doing if you were to completely avoid anything oil related.
The real issue is, what are we going to do about the dependency on oil?
When oil is $10 bucks a gallon, and it will be. You will be whining just like the rest of the world. And I’m sure you already are, just not on a forum filled with trolls.
Peace
Great questions, but it’s easy to come up with questions not as easy to come up with solutions. It will probably take the prez one or even two terms to address some of these. Given that his predecessor/s got plenty of time to create the current mess, we should extend him the same courtesy.
Here’s a crazy thought – why not crowdsource the solutions as well? This technology/tool could also be used to leverage collective wisdom and instead of just asking questions, the common Joe/Jane could be empowered to make a difference, especially on the ones like “reducing our addiction to fossil fuels”.
Ask not what your prez can do for you…
He’s appointed some of the best minds to help him. Crowdsourcing could get the rest. Problem with crowdsourcing a solution is you have to have all the facts in order to provide an appropriate solution – somehow I don’t think the US government is about to become _that_ transparent.
They must have included the issues on outsourcing and foreign policies and what measures he has been taking the matter of iraq will the soldiers continue to monitor the situation there,will the USA interfere in the issues of foreing countries..
regards
aartha
Dell 22″ flat LCD monitor -$190
@ http://tinyurl.com/73kzfh
One thing about Obama…he isn’t afraid of technology or using the web to get his message across, or getting other companies to do similar things.
Priority One I think for a new president: Get this economy actually functional again.
you guys need to stick to hardcore tech. the political talent is badly lacking at techcrunch.
Mr President Elect now has to deal with truckload of problems. I would like to wish him all the success.
…signs of Obama Office will be using more open source tech
having said that, web / technology has played a major part in Mr Obama success in this election.
Hope his office will continued to make good and effective use of technology to bring the economy back on track.
[take advantage of the cheap AUD to purchase US based VPS hosting account - http://flexihostings.net.au/ ]
Note that you don’t actually sign in with a google account. You create an account at change.gov which you use to sign in to open for questions.
Happy New Year TC and to all our American friends.
Even if things look bleak right now, recognizing and and acknowledging the problems and their origins is half the battle to get out of the whole.
Against all odds – To a great 2009, for all of you.
Great post, thanks for this, and happy new year to TC and all the american people, you’re living something great with your democraty!
Mike,
This is certainly a very nice post you made today in having all of us think. I also showed you some “link love” on this blog post I made linked to my name, in calling you an “educated MOTORMOUTH”…(smile)
happy new years to you,
MG
http://www.mysp...atedndetermined
It was great that technology was instrumental in the choice of Obama as our future president. Without any doubt, he and his administration will continue to use it.
However, we *must* remember that these guys, including Obama, are professional politicians, which means… [sorry] more of the same crap coming out of washington. More lies, old and new, political posturing with no useful results, self-serving, useless policies and more…
The questions asked, hopefully by American citizens, are valid and full of hope and desires for true changes in our country. However, living in Washington DC, I am very cynical and pessimistic. For instance, the first question regarding bailouts and keeping jobs in the US: we are talking about private companies, the essence of the American capitalistic system –Yes, jobs could be kept in the US, only if companies are guaranteed similar profits and ability to compete… How? Well, the only way is to give them millions of “grants” [bailouts] which, of course, we all pay for. Obama will never do anything to affect the American system, because if he does, he will appear as a socialist [which he is], the Prez “for the people.”
“you guys need to stick to hardcore tech. the political talent is badly lacking at techcrunch.”
I think tech geeks, like Hollywood actors, assume that because they’re highly sophisticated in one area of life, they are sophisticated in others — like politics.
They’re wrong. But vanity is a common human failing.
Considering politics as it is, that is a compliment. We may not be sophisticated politicians (self-serving, deceitful, power-based), but we’re still insanely intelligent, understand the concept of cause and effect, can logically, objectively examine issues, and construct accurate domain models.
Perhaps we can’t politic with the best, but, money on the table, we could fix the issues.
Thanks for proving my point, Brett. Your “insane intelligence” doesn’t grok politics. Like I said, tech geeks are incredibly vain people.
The “solutions” (or best-case solutions, if you prefer) to these problems already exist and are well-known. It is amusing to watch your ilk pat yourselves on the back for your problem-solving abilities.
It is their political tenability that is the issue, that has been the chief reason these problems have not been solved.
Thanks for posting this–it’s fascinating and encouraging–and I add my own Happy New Year to the mix!
I love that the Administration is earnestly experimenting with this…but have to remember when I start getting excited about “feedback from the masses” that the people who are engaging most with change.gov are not a wholly representational x-section of “the masses.”
Question #8 seems a good example of the site’s self-selection. Most people I know–i.e., beyond those who are either young, or in some way involved professionally with the web, social networking, “new” media, etc–wouldn’t rank appointing a Chief Technology Officer among the top 8 most important initiatives of the new Admin.
Still, it’s a vocal constituency that cares passionately, and that’s a good thing.
That’s an excellent point. It IS a constituency (largely the vaunted “creative class”) deluding itself (or trying to fool others) it is “the masses”. It is not more than a special interest group like the AARP or the gay marriage lobby. Like the “solutions” they prefer are in any way compatible to those of a Midwestern coalworker, let’s say.
I think they will soon discover they are just another pawn on Barack’s chessboard (well, maybe a knight at best
It’s a great idea. Here’s one question I voted for:
http://www.chan...m_the_bottom_up
My company, Imaginatik, pioneered the use of these mass intelligence / crowdsourcing applications within companies, starting back in the mid 1990s doing PhD research, building out an application set, Idea Central, in 1998. Some credentials? The World Economic Forum recognized Imaginatik as a Technology Pioneer 2008 – the year they focused on Collaborative Innovation.
That being said, there is a lot of goodness in these crowdsourced applications – and just as much badness in the way they have been conducted. 80K pieces of any content is a nightmare to process – and there is a real risk of disaffecting those early contributors who naively probably believe something will happen with their post (32, 475 out of 75,000).
There are though a decent number of ways to make this crowdsourcing approach supremely useful for solving the Us and the world’s problems – tapping into the collective genius that exists when we combine many brains together and focus the brainpower, like a human laserbeam, on a problem.
Imaginatik is already starting to work on this in the public domain – stay tuned for more. And if anyone would like to participate, you can start by signing up to community.imaginatik.com.
Cheers, Mark Turrell – CEO Imaginatik
good post.
Ideatorrent is perfect for change.gov even the BBC is testing it out.
” it let people submit their ideas, brainstorm them, and vote on them. The most popular ideas and requests are then easily assessable.
That’s a very interesting mean for a software project to have an insight on the demands of his user base!
IdeaTorrent includes multiples solutions to a single rationale support, strong community based moderation tools, theming support, and is based on Drupal.”
How about letting citizens answer their own questions, not just ask questions.
Obama (and his cabinet) does not know answers to all questions.
Let the people help themselves.
As always in politics it isn’t the questions asked and answers offered, it is the questions not being asked that are more interesting.
The #1 question to ask the Obama administration is “How are you going to pay for all the programs you ran on without causing the US to default on its debt 10-15 years from now, and without degrading its military capabilities to the point where it can no longer keep the world from plunging into complete chaos?”
The answer to that question is “I don’t know, it’s probably impossible.” Hence the question is simply not asked.
Vote for
“What will your administration do to provide truly universal, affordable healthcare for all US citizens, regardless of employment status?” (Healthcare)
Well, that’s an easy one. As long as you ration the care (bureaucratic control, waiting lists, lines) or raise taxes sufficiently, you can have that with a single-payer Medicare-like plan.
I mean, c’mon? Give me something harder here…
Typo in the first paragraph: “He needs to look to further than his transition Website, Change.gov”, I think the second “to” should be “no”. The meaning of the sentence is completely different without the “no”.
Thanks. Your remark is great. I’m a translator for the Japanese version of the TC.
By the wat, Google Moderator is simply a misfit for such an huge and complex data set. It only leaves a mount of ‘unread’ questions.
Politics4All.com is providing a central hub for political discussion, plus a whole lot more, already. It’s not run by the government. It also provides legislative tracking tools and group discussions so citizens can utilize the Internet to bring a voice of change to our political system.
Here was my question:
“Is there any consideration being given to enhance the SBA so that a venture capital fund, developed, funded, and administered by the government, is created to jump start the economy?”
And you free market freaks who think the guv would just mess things up? Your era ended last year. Thanks.
Don’t go getting all giddy, sonny. You statist freaks must realize your time in power will be short-lived.
Here are some obvious problems with such a fund:
1) Vulnerability to corruption
2) Vulnerability to inefficiency, i.e. influence of politics and politically correct considerations on decision-making.
3) Lack of accountability for incompetence.
think Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac times 10. A nexus of Washington insiders cutting deals to line their own pockets at taxpayer expense.
Great questions. Must be something to the procedure.
The entire world is looking forward to what kind of change The president Obama brings us?
Interesting how any questions about the corruption involving his senate seat and how much involvement his chief of staff had to do with that or without that has been removed or redacted.:)
Welcome to the new world of politics. Hope and Change is here.
Well, if he addressed all those questions, it would be enough work for the next 5-10 administrations!
Crowd sourcing works especially when it hits major pain points such as this example of http://www.deadcellzones.com. Mobile phone consumers who want to come together to help carriers improve coverage where it matters most. Cast your vote and put a pin in the map where you want to see better coverage.
It would be soo much better if other people could provide answers/input to other peoples questions. This is better than nothing, but typical of government…it falls very short.
Obama team will be publicly posting how tax payer money will be used..i guess this is a good move….lead by example…lead by courage..obama….all the best
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