How Much Change Can We Expect in Washington?
The White House announced today that the Cyberspace Review that President Obama ordered has been completed. Here is the statement from the Press Secretary:
On February 9, the President directed a 60-day review of the plans, programs and activities underway throughout the government that address our communications and information infrastructure (i.e., cyberspace). The purpose of the review is to develop a strategic framework to ensure that our initiatives in this area are integrated, resourced and coordinated appropriately, both within the Executive Branch and with Congress and the private sector. Today, the interagency group undertaking the review concluded its work and is now in the process of submitting its findings and recommendations for the President’s review.
The report being submitted summarizes the review team’s conclusions and outlines the beginning of the way forward in building a reliable, resilient, trustworthy digital infrastructure for the future. It provides to the President recommendations regarding an optimal White House organizational structure to address cyberspace-related issues and includes an action plan on identifying and prioritizing further work in this area. After the President has had an opportunity to carefully review the group’s report, we will begin discussing the results.
Thus far I have been pretty underwhelmed by how the White House, and other federal agencies, have used technology and the internet to communicate. The creation of sites like Recovery.gov (which I have spent a good amount of time reviewing), the launch of the White House blog (which I read regularly and find pretty interesting), and the inclusion of the online audience in the President’s town hall meeting (which was interesting, but not ) have received a lot of attention — and the White House deserves a lot of credit for being open and welcoming — I just feel so much more could (and I would argue should) be done.
I don’t want to suggest that the Obama administration isn’t living up to its promise to increase access to information and ensure greater transparency — I just want to see even more. There is so much opportunity for using technology and the internet to engage, and educate, and mobilize citizens around different issues… launching a website, making some data available, and the like doesn’t really get to the heart of the issue.
That’s why this Cyberspace Review, and the recommendations that ultimately come from it, are so important. I can’t wait to see what they come up with.
How far do you think the recommendations will go? How much change do you think we can expect when the implementation of the recommendations begins?
Make your predictions now.
Brian is Managing Director of little m media which provides strategic guidance and support to organizations around the use of the internet and technology to facilitate communications, engagement, education, and mobilization.
