This is something I’ve been looking forward to, but my brain is experiencing a little cognitive dissonance in trying to parse the data. This requires a little lead-up:
Barack Obama’s campaign website was (and, so far, still is) a pretty stellar example of modern, standards-based web development. The people responsible for it not only had a fantastic grasp of typography and smart graphic design, but also put to good use some of the most up-to-date methods of producing a website. It’s at least as progressive as the candidate that it represented. It’s forward-thinking (supporting new and future browsers), but it’s also pragmatic (catering to antique browsers like the now-seven-year-old Internet Explorer 6). I said to my friend Libby yesterday, something I never in a million years thought I’d say: I just learned a cool new IE6 .png fix from the website of the President-Elect of the United States. WTF?
Yesterday, in case you hadn’t seen it, the office of the President-Elect put up a website. It’s the first fulfillment of Obama’s promise to bring transparency to the White House, and I can’t wait to see where it goes. Of note, most of the stuff on the site is simply a verbatim list of his campaign promises, which seemingly haven’t gone out the window since he was elected. They’ve got a digital Press Room, which is the thing that has me geekin’ out right now:
Watching the President-Elect on my phone.
I just checked my RSS feed reader on my cell phone, and saw that there was a Press Release from the Office of the President-Elect. There was a link to a YouTube video of the President-Elect’s comments. I watched it. What he said didn’t change my life. But the way I experienced it did.
This is the first time I have taken an intensely personal interest in an election. I’ve been interested before, but I’ve been so disenfranchised by the BS over Clinton’s escapades, and by the subsequent election of a scoundrel-idiot, that I simply wanted it to all go away after election day. I won’t get too deep into the subject, because my friend Libby has already expressed what I was thinking.
But now I’m awake. And I fully appreciate the fact that my modern digital life allows me to quickly peek at what the guy we elected is doing, easily and efficiently. This guy gets it, or at least understands how to pick people who do.
I’ve been working on websites for years. Any website that has any government ties at all, is pretty much always gonna suck. It’s a hallmark of bureaucracy. I’ve worked on sites for businesses that were required to use the State of California’s web template, and I was astounded at what a pile of shit the government was forcing me to use. But here’s the new website of the President-Elect, and it’s effing beautiful.
But here’s where I need your help: They posted a video to YouTube. I mean…is that ok?
Sure, it’s ok by me, but there are always connotations. That’s why bureaucracy sucks so badly. It’s because government institutions simply can’t do anything without worrying about unintended repercussions. What if Yahoo puts up advertisements that are offensive, or are contrary to the beliefs of the new administration? And what about Vimeo? By directing traffic to YouTube, in the President-Elect’s website effectively snubbing other video services, or showing favoritism?
You see why I’ve got this itch on my brain? What are your thoughts? I know it’s a really geeky concern, and a bit odd of me to sweat it, considering my hatred of bureaucracy…but that’s why I described it as “cognitive dissonance.”
Set me straight.