• But first, bye bye absurd abortion laws!

• The Inauguration killed the Internets! No mere series of tubes can withstand the pressure of this seminal moment in history.

• “BarackBerry,” “ObamaBerry”—call it what you will, we still can’t get over the fact that he’s the first president ever to use e-mail while in office.

• An economist explains why all those hospital procedures cost what they do.

• The trees are dying! The trees are dying!

• OMG! We’re in the White House! Blogging, presidential style.

• No, Virginia, there’s no such thing as truly clean coal.

Ruthlessly modernize: Examine the technology used within the federal system and determine what is outdated, redundant and inadequate, then keep what works and expel what doesn’t. Examine procurement polices and demand they are in line with best practices. The results of this endeavor alone will save the federal government massive amounts of money…

Create openness of information: This will serve two important functions, namely allowing people to see what the government is doing, thus fostering accountability born of transparency, and also providing access to data that will inevitably inspire and support innovation and collaboration within the private sector. In this realm, the old adage from the free software movement of “release early, release often” is quite helpful…

Create a single government-wide wiki: A wiki is a Web site that gives users the ability to edit and keep track of those edits historically. The most famous wiki, of course, is Wikipedia. But today, effective large enterprises are implementing wikis internally to allow their employees to rapidly share knowledge and disseminate information; they’ve realized that the time and dissemination efficiencies thereby achieved are substantial.

And, of course, there’s the most important technological task of all: managing the president’s Blackberry.

Related:
RB: The Internet Reveals Obama’s First “Broken Campaign Promise”
RB: Obama Blogs? President-Elect Launches Web Site, Embraces Internet
RB: Politicians v. Technology: Obama, McCain Battle the Internet

Considering that Jagdeo’s phony profile attracted around 170 supporters before it was pulled, and that the page contained no mocking comments, revealing personal information, or doctored photos (the tenets of celebrity impersonations on the Internet), Jagdeo might have even taken the impersonation as a compliment—imitation being the sincerest form of flattery and all.

But not so.

Instead, the Guyanan leader issued a “terse statement pointing out that he is not, and never has been, a member of Facebook, or any other social networking site,” and then instructed the police to start an investigation. Meaning that some teenager with a laptop is currently looking for the quickest flight out of Georgetown.

The Internet and politics are now fully intertwined, likely permanently, and it’s borderline naive to think that pranks and unauthorized impersonations of political leaders won’t occur. Which leads us to the “Can’t Beat ‘Em So Join ‘Em” strategy embraced by Obama (and Shaquille O’Neal, and around 10,000 other bold-face names): If phonies are pretending to be you on Facebook (or Twitter, etc.), create a real profile that outs them as phonies.

Your other option? Setting up 24-hour watch on a giant medium that is created and read by billions worldwide—and wasting police time tracking down kids with Internet connections.

Related:
RB: Obama Would Win Easily…If the Election Were a Web Poll
RB: Obama Blogs? President-Elect Launches Web Site, Embraces Internet

Image: Flickr/libraryman

How does President-Elect Obama love technology? Let us count the ways. Among the features the incoming administration is adding to its much-anticipated technology ramp-up is a video version of the weekly Democratic address. From now on, the president-elect will record the address on video, then his staff will upload it to none other than YouTube, as well as Obama’s Web site (for the first video, go here).

And fear not, technophiles—there’s more. From the Washington Post:

In addition to regularly videotaping the radio address, officials at the transition office say the Obama White House will also conduct online Q&As and video interviews. The goal, officials say, is to put a face on government. In the following weeks, for example, senior members of the transition team, various policy experts and choices for the Cabinet, among others, will record videos for Change.gov.

Of course, not all of this techno-political bonanza is 100 percent original: The current administration’s Web site “offers RSS feeds, podcasts and videos of press briefings,” while the “site’s Ask the White House page has featured regular online chats dating back to 2003.” Granted, it’s pretty safe to assume online video clips of Bush didn’t garner quite the same enthusiasm.

Related:
RB: Obama Blogs? President-Elect Launches Web Site, Embraces Internet
RB: Politicians v. Technology: Obama, McCain Battle the Internet
RB: Obama Changes His View (Or, at Least, His Web Site) On Technology

If there’s one thing this election season has taught us, it’s that there’s no hiding in the Internet—and that includes politicians vying for the nation’s highest offices. For starters, of all the criticisms of McCain’s views, record, character, and policies, one of the stickiest so far has been his self-proclaimed inability to use the Web.

Then last week brought Yahoomail-gate, with the infamous hacker group Anonymous accessing VP hopeful Sarah Palin’s personal e-mail account, revealing to the world that she did indeed use her personal e-mail for official business, and that she liked to send and receive pictures of her kids. (Scandalous!) A quick and dirty FBI investigation soon indicated that the hacker may be none other than the son of Democratic Tennessee state representative Mike Kernell.

Equally diligent watchdogs also noticed some strange happenings over on Obama’s official campaign Web site—the prominence of which we’ve discussed before.

It started when a Slashdot reader noted that substantial chunks of text had been removed from the technology section of the candidate’s site, particularly the section on net neutrality. Concerned Web users soon compiled a detailed comparison of the two versions, and buzz began spreading across cyberspace: Had Obama changed his view on the importance of net neutrality? Was VP nominee Joe Biden—who’s been a “hesitant supporter” of pro-net neutrality legislation—urging the campaign to relax its commitment to protect public media?

In a rush to quell doubts—or maybe just do damage control—an Obama campaign rep quickly circulated a statement asserting that the site revisions weren’t indicative of any official changes, and offering an updated technology plan that reflected no material differences in policy.

It wasn’t hard to predict that Obama’s warm embrace of technology throughout the election might bring a double-edged sword—specifically, that his campaign would have to arm itself with watchdogs charged with putting out Web fires not only from hostile sources, but also from diligent supporters that can and will catch any slip-up. Nominees, you’ve been forewarned: The Internet is watching.

It’s no secret that, when it comes to Internet savvy, the two presidential candidates are about as different as BASIC and LINUX. And nowhere does their Web contrast play out more than in their respective campaigning. The Economist reports that in June, Obama raised $52 million in total, $31 million of which came from donations of $200 or less that were mostly generated by his Web site. He also has 1.3 million Facebook supporters to McCain’s 200,000, and also keeps regularly updated profiles on MySpace, LinkedIn, and other social networks.

And then there’s video. While YouTube has been embraced by just about everyone as a great way to spread viral campaign messages, Obama has his own video team on the payroll. So far, the group has shot more than 2,000 hours of footage and uploaded around 1,110 videos on his YouTube channel–more than four times the content on McCain’s channel. And all that work has paid off: The Illinois Senator’s videos have been viewed 52 million times to McCain’s 9.5 million.

To top it all off, Obama has a Twitter account (just like the SEC!), and of course, there’s the text messaging. Earlier this month, the campaign sent out a widespread e-mail offering anyone the chance to sign up to receive the name of his chosen running mate via text. A few days later, Obama Mobile, a site allowing users to access Obama news and download videos on their cellphones, was born.

Whether all the mining of technology translates into votes remains to be seen—though, given that 40 percent of Americans get their campaign news from the Internet, investing in a significant online presence can’t be a bad thing. Likewise, we’ll also see how a relative dearth of technology use/knowledge fares for McCain—once he gets that whole “Google” thing figured out.