At noon on January 20, 2009, as Barack Obama sat on a dais listening to Yo Yo Ma and Itzak Perlman play Air and Simple Gifts, a White House IT staffer flipped a breaker on the web server, and the redesigned whitehouse.gov went live.
The people cheered, and not just for our new president. The new site put Obama's "by the people" communications style front and center. Here's a shot of the old site (hat tip: Rex Sorgatz's flickr photostream):
It's cool, sterile, formal, center-framed, and high power distance (to quote Geert Hofstede). Here's the new site:
It's warm, direct, engaging, and cool in a different way. It has personality, like our president. It even has a blog. Partly what’s good about it is that it’s so much better than the old site. But more than that, it changes our perceptions of a government website, thereby changing our perceptions of government itself.
I was moved to express my admiration, using the "Contact Us" link in the upper right. I'd forgotten about writing that note. The gesture vaporized into the post-inaugural fizz. Today, though, this arrived in my inbox:
Dear Meg Maker:
Thank you for your recent note, and for sharing your thoughts
with me. Your kind words echo the messages of millions of
Americans who have welcomed me and my family to the White
House with an outpouring of goodwill.
On January 20th, Americans spoke with one voice, choosing
hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. Our
Nation faces serious challenges, but we will overcome them if
our imagination is joined to common purpose.
Now is our time to work together, reaffirm our enduring
spirit, and choose our better history. With your help, we will
renew our Nation's promise to carry forth the great gift of
freedom to future generations, as our forebears have delivered it
to us.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
To be a part of our agenda for change, join us at www.WhiteHouse.gov
Recent note? I had to grope through the haze to figure out what triggered this email. Well, if you consider the last quarter "recent," then it must have been the web comment. I love my new president, but this communication doesn't win awards for timeliness or personalization.
Still, arriving as it did on tax day, I have to believe that someone out there is paying attention, and appreciates my participation on this most participatory of days.
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