Whitehouse.gov Has A New Face, And a Blog

As President Barack Obama was giving his inauguration speech, another transfer of power was happening online. At exactly 12 PM ET, Whitehouse.gov, the official Website of the President switched over to a new design. There are links to Obama’s Agenda and a Briefing Room where citizens will be able to find Obama’s weekly Web video address, appointments and nominations, executive orders, and slideshows.

And, of course, there is a blog (without comments, though—understandable given all the trolls and spammers, but it seems like some kind of tiered community moderation could work here). The first blog post, written by the White House director of New Media, Macon Phillips is titled: “Change has come to Whitehouse.gov.” The theme of the post is transparency:

One significant addition to WhiteHouse.gov reflects a campaign promise from the President: we will publish all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days, and allow the public to review and comment before the President signs it.

Hopefully, the administration will continue some of the experiments with citizen participation which it tried on Change.gov, its transition Website. Whitehouse.gov certainly has the same look and feel.