White House 2.0: Social Media and Government Transparency

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/01/09/Wiki_White_House_Can_Obama_Use_Tech_to_Transform_Govt

Ellen Miller, Executive Director of the Sunlight Foundation, says it is the responsibility of government to embrace technology and provide political transparency.” Government should be born open, not born secret,” she says.

—–

Technology evangelists believe that Barack Obama has the potential to fundamentally alter communication between the presidency and the people.

Wikis in the White House? Online public comments on legislation? A real-time two-way conversation between citizens and their elected officials?

For better or worse, however, nothing is as easy as it might seem. Federal regulations, First Amendment issues, and just plain common sense are going to slow — and potentially stagnate — technological innovation in Washington.

Panelists discussed their hopes for a more transparent Obama administration and the challenges to a more open and participatory government – New America Foundation

Ellen S. Miller is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington-based, non-profit catalyst that is using new technology to open up Congress. In just two years, Sunlight has created more than two dozen Web sites, databases, distributed research projects, tools and widgets to make information about Congress’ activities more accessible through the Internet. She is the founder of two prominent Washington-based organizations in the field of money and politics — the Center for Responsive Politics and Public Campaign — and a nationally recognized expert on campaign finance and ethics issues.

Ms. Miller is a well-recognized public speaker, commentator, and writer on the issues of money, politics, and power. Her experience as a Washington advocate for more than 35 years spans the worlds of public interest advocacy, grass roots activism and journalism. In addition to her more than two decades of work on the issue of money in politics, Ms. Miller served as Deputy Director of Campaign for America’s Future, where she directed its Project for an Accountable Congress, the publisher of TomPaine.com and a senior fellow at The American Prospect. She spent nearly a decade working on Capitol Hill. She blogs regularly at the Sunlight Foundation site and has written frequently for TomPaine.com, The Hill, The American Prospect, and The Nation.

Duration : 0:2:40

[youtube rAnDfAWv2hM]