White House on SlideShare and why Govt content should be open, searchable & shareable
Jul 14, 12:00 am PST
The Obama administration has made great strides in using the internet to connect with people. They have videos on YouTube, pictures on Flickr and now, documents & presentations on SlideShare.
Why are documents & presentations important? Because they are used to record and share much of the thinking and ideas in modern life. And they are used by Govt & Public Services as much as they are used by rest of us. Yet, they are locked up in proprietary formats like .doc, pdf, .ppt etc. Sharing is hard as the files are big (and clog up email inboxes). Most presentations & documents live on people’s hard drives. Sometimes people upload them to their websites but that’s still the exception, not the rule.
A lot of documents produced by the various arms of the Gov are meant to be shared with the public. Some of them are for communicating policy. You can read a New York Times article about Whitehouse’s Middle Class Taskforce / Green Jobs initiative, but its different when you can directly view and embed a document about the initiative.
At other times, documents are for getting a message out and making it a part of the conversation on the web. For example, Whitehouse uploaded the President’s speech in Cairo in 15 different languages (Arabic, French, Portugese, Chinese, Dari, Hindi, Hebrew, Persian, Russian, Malay, Turkish, Urdu, Pashto, Punjabi & Indonesian).
Or you can view a presentation about technology policy technology policy from Vivek Kundra, US Chief Information Officer (presentation embedded below).
Please join us in Welcoming President Barack Obama & his White House team to SlideShare.
Jul 14, 5:52 am
Well Good news public serving work should be opened to public as well i think it’s a positive thinking but might be danger he any one use this information illegally it could be harmful to US nation
Security must be keep in mind while you share govt work with people across the world
Jul 14, 10:43 am
if I go to a govt office in india, let it be a small village level office, it will take ages to get some silly certificate, from that level, to take it to the level that you are expecting things to be … that’s a big task, ( I am not saying impossible though )
for India, there is a long way to go ….
Jul 15, 12:55 pm
I think it is great that the WH is wanting to inform the public about their intented directions. However, it would be really great if there truly was transparency and if the Congress were to actually read and understand the massive proposed bills before they passed them. As yet, they have not shown true transparency and their desire to meet the peoples needs and desires for change. That is an area of improvement that would be very positive for the WH and would buy them some real traction with the people that have the ability to vote them in or out next time…….
Jul 16, 6:24 pm
Proceed with Caution: The government has a virtually unlimited resources, namely my money. I expect them to use that money for the jobs described in the constitution and in the law. When they spend more time and money (my money) trying to convince me they are doing a good job than actually doing that job, It worries me, not a little.
Some such posting is certainly beneficial, but consider this; each single NEW page produced by a government office is not trivial, it costs thousands of your dollars per page (I have worked in such offices, produced such documents, and counted the beans).
Also the Constitution specifically prohibits the Fed from ‘copyrighting’ anything to prevent Government from limiting our freedom to use and distribute information. If they begin to flood the I-Net or other media with BS, it would have a similar effect of constraining Free Speech.
Aug 3, 1:08 am
Yet, they are locked up in proprietary formats like .doc, pdf, .ppt etc. solarhotwatersystem.net Sharing is hard as the files are big (and clog up email inboxes). Most presentations & documents live on people’s hard drives.