Obama's Whitehouse.gov: Frozen in time?

President Obama signed an order on Wednesday proclaiming that the entire federal government should be more open, transparent, and Internet-friendly. It said that agencies must "put information about their operations and decisions online and readily available to the public."

That memorandum, along with a few other executive orders and statements from White House officials, were sent to reporters throughout the day. But in an ironic twist, the transparency and a slew of other first-day-in-office documents were still absent from the official Whitehouse.gov site as of Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET.

caption: Whitehouse.gov, frozen in time since Tuesday?

The Web site still says: "The President has not yet issued any Executive Orders."

By comparison, the outgoing Bush administration was disciplined about updating Whitehouse.gov. As soon as Bush left the White House on Tuesday to go to the inauguration, a photo of himself and his wife appeared online.

Yet the text of Obama's inaugural address didn't appear for more than a day, even though news organizations posted it immediately. Still missing from Whitehouse.gov are an executive order relating to ethics, a memorandum about a staff pay freeze, and an Obama statement about meeting with the Iraqi ambassador.

Now, we've heard reports of confusion during the Obama press office's first full day on the job, with phones not working and computer passwords not assigned. And it's fair to say that the Bush administration's takeover of Whitehouse.gov was not exactly an unqualified success; it boasted broken links and, briefly, the phrase "Insert Something Meaningful Here."

But for a president who campaigned on on government openness and (unlike Bush) had almost three months to prepare, this state of affairs can't be entirely satisfying.

Update 5:40 pm PT: The White House Web site has been updated to include some, but not all, of the documents.

Update 5:50 pm PT: Whitehouse.gov includes some JavaScript tracking code that sends WebTrends--a private company that provides Web analytics--information about each visitor's computer and settings. This disclosure is not made public in Whitehouse.gov's privacy policy, and may violate a Clinton-era memorandum saying government Web sites should have "clear and conspicuous notice of any such tracking activities." The Bush administration got in trouble for a less intrusive use of WebTrends, which merely set a cookie instead of sending visitor information to a third party, according to an Associated Press article from 2005. A WebTrends spokesman declined to comment, referring us to the White House. We'll contact the White House and get back to you.

[Seanathome]

Give them time. It's only their first day. :P

[jah99]

Two executive orders are up as of 10PM ET

[M C]

This is getting utterly ridiculous, CNet. Get off the cleverly hot-button-titled click-bait with the thinnest possible premise and go find some REAL news.

Embarrassing. I hope CBS is watching.

[the_ricochet]

Wow. What a non-story this was.

[Sporlo]

lol

[pwandmaker]

Hey declan, do you have to write this crap to justify a job? minute by minute updates of whitehouse updates?? what a useless piece of writing.

[mpitogo]

If you try hard enough you can always find something to nit pick. Clearly there is a job that pays someone to write this stuff.

[calpundit]

Come on, Obama, you've been in office over 36 hours.

Where's my flying car?

[cytwombly]

Hey--I thought this article was interesting. Thanks for posting it, Declan.

[MSSlayer]

First you try to pass off the size of a text file as proof that it isn't open, and now this?

Is there an award for journalism(using this term very loosely, this is CNET after all) that is equivalent to The Razzies?

I only ask because it seems that Declan is hell bent on getting a award for worst reporting. He is working damn hard to earn it.

If it doesn't exist, perhaps we should give him something. How about a typewriter with a huge pile of horse crap on it?

That seems fitting.

[jeffguevin]

I agree that there's a bit of nitpicking alarmism in this series of articles...but Declan is digging up some interesting stuff, and if that leads to some improvement (e.g., removal or disclosure of WebTrends tracking), I hope he'll continue to pick the nits.

[Dungeekin]

< href="http://dungeekin.blogspot.com/2009/01/obama-has-first-presidential-motion.html">Obama Passes First Presidential Motion</a>

After little more than 24 hours in office as the 44th President of the United States, it was announced today that Barack Obama, the historic first African-American President, had succesfully had his first Presidential bowel movement.

Read the Full, Exclusive Story <a href="http://dungeekin.blogspot.com/2009/01/obama-has-first-presidential-motion.html">HERE</a>!

D

[kingttx]

Oh man, you've gone and done it! You've dug up something slightly negative about their darling and here they come with pitchforks and torches!

[declan00]

Yup. Clearing saying something to the effect that "The Bush 2001 Whitehouse.gov switchover had problems, and so did the Obama 2009 Whitehouse.gov switchover" is terrible, awful, and not to be tolerated.

[stoppoliticalcalls]

Hi,

Privacy concerns by politicians in general are a joke. They love to pass laws that force you and I and our employers to put up privacy protections and have hearings on them.

However, when it comes to pols actually living by the laws that they write, that is another thing.

I wrote an op-ed on candidate privacy issues in the Washington Post on this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/12/AR2008091202658.html

Shaun Dakin
CEO
StopPoliticalCalls.org