I was reading the local newspaper last weekend, and noticed an inspirational article about the Obama administration’s innovative use of the Internet as a public engagement tool.
It’s not so much the technology that’s innovative; but rather, the decision to use the Internet as a key vehicle to maintain a dialogue with America and the world.
The initiative’s called Open for Questions (OQ), and the objective is to create a community-based online town hall where the public submits questions via email through the White House website, which are later answered by the President via Webcast. While the busy man clearly doesn’t have time to answer all questions submitted, he is able to select the most pertinent ones to frame his video response.
President Obama’s objective is to embrace technology to “open up the White House to the American people”. What a great initiative, and why on earth wasn’t it done sooner?! The tools have been available for a little while now, it’s an incredibly cost effective way of mass-communication, and it is – at least for now – still considered groundbreaking in terms of large-scale government communications.
Whether it be streamed Webcasts or pre-recorded videos, the Obama camp have latched onto a trend that I personally hope will be infectious among other organisations, agencies and administrations – particularly the government sector.
It’s time for the Internet to be appropriately credited as the mega-communications tool that it is. Unsurprisingly, Internet usage is on the rise globally, and we all know it’s going to continue this way. According to Nielsen Online, over 1.5 billion people are using the Internet worldwide, and world Internet usage has grown five-fold since 2000. Of more relevance to President Obama will be the 220 million Internet users in the United States (US), which accounts for over 72% of the US population.
I notice that the Australian Prime Minister has also introduced a new website to educate the public about the government’s economic stimulus package. A pre-recorded video introduction from Prime Minister Rudd awaits users on the site’s homepage, but I wonder whether he’ll follow Obama’s Webcasting lead? The world’s current economic challenges – and Australia’s subsequent ‘endurance’ strategy – are certainly worthy of some continuous dialogue with the Australian public…and using the Internet would be a very responsible use of taxpayer money!
Rob
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