Comments on: Much ado about Whitehouse.gov's new openness

President Obama's new White House Web site has been lauded for being more open than former President Bush's. There's just one problem with that theory: it's wrong.

[dennisl59]

Like the President, his Webmasters are Amateurs and can't code their way out of a paperbag.

Citizens, welcome to the Brave New World.

[mathcreative]

Who cares if the website doesn't fully support w3c. That's a trivial matter, what matters is if the website can work well with most of the browsers out their.

[ROSCOE48]

I just want to receive e-mail updates from the white house regarding the new openness of the new administration. thanks

[open-mind]

Despite what some might say, there is no question that President Obama and his cabinet are the most open in history. You can ask them any questions, even tough questions, and they will respond ... usually with one of these four answers:


"It's impossible to respond at this time."

"Sorry, I'm not familiar with that."

"It seems like an honest mistake."

"He was just a guy in the neighborhood."

Sounds like a whole bunch of people that are still mesmorized by their new rockstar president that can do no wrong.

[ShamusMac]

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone:
The W3C Markup Validation Service displays the following for this CNET page:

"523 Errors, 325 warning(s) "

See:
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.cnet.com%2F8301-13578_3-10146802-38.html&charset=(detect+automatically)&doctype=Inline&group=0

[CeeJean]

President Barack Obama, Father, and Husband and First Lady, Michelle Obama, Mom, and Wife show our nation and the world a since of inspirational evolvement. It is truly genuine...they show the leadership qualities that each of us as individuals should show in our families and daily lives toward each other. He will a great leader, and her a great first lady. I am truly proud and wish them well.

[kittekaat]

Well, this "Obama Geek" knows better than to blame Obama personally for something that is not executed by him AT ALL. If you're gonna **** vinegar, at least aim the stream at the IT and web-developer staff that actually have their hands on the project and executed it incorrectly rather than the guy who gave them the command. You are just grasping for somehting to complain about him. Now try to find something HE actually did personally himself to complain about.

[kittekaat]

Well, this "Obama Geek" knows better than to blame Obama personally for something that is not executed by him AT ALL. If you're gonna **** vinegar, at least aim the stream at the IT and web-developer staff that actually have their hands on the project and executed it incorrectly rather than the guy who gave them the command. You are just grasping for something to complain about him. Now try to find something HE actually did personally himself to complain about.

[ibenr]

There have a few minor changes since last week. It now (2009-01-25) looks like this:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/robots.txt

User-agent: *
Disallow: /includes/
Disallow: /search/
Disallow: /omb/search/

BTW: Great article. This is a good example of how policy gets turned into reality. Something IT folks all over should study and learn from. There is so much misinformation about this topic.

Are we trying to interpret the policy of the implementation of the policy? It seems to me there are changes afoot in the administration and they are making an attempt to move things in a more open and more transparent direction. Attention to detail and communication are always challenges in times of transition and there will be some tuning needed to ensure the policies are being correctly implemented and have the desired results. Our analysis as a public is being listened to and responded to. This is the important "take away" for us at this point.

[AirborneBrother]

I'm just holding my breath about the Prez's stimulus package. Is he just throwing money at the problem or what is happening?

[AirborneBrother]

As a former member of the 82ND Airborne Division, I was deeply moved by First Lady Michelle OBama's visit to Ft. Bragg to spend time with the children and families of our paratoopers. Just want to say a BIG 'Thank You' for remembering us.