Sunlight’s Ellen Miller posted previously on President-Elect Barack Obama’s use of Internet video - or lack of imaginative use. Recently, Obama posted a video to YouTube (among other video sharing sites) addressing climate change and energy policy. This is what it looks like:

In response to Obama’s address, Rep. Ed Markey, the chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, posted his own video:

Now this isn’t the most thrilling discussion, although it may be the first time a lawmaker has responded to a President-Elect through a video sharing service. Instead it’s more of a laudatory salutation for joining those few politicians using Internet technologies. Despite the lack of substance in Rep. Markey’s video, the potential is evident for lawmakers who want to respond, or correspond, with a YouTube posting President.

A few things to note on President-Elect Obama’s videos: (1) Comments are disabled. I’m not the biggest fan of YouTube commenters, but if you are going to use the Internet the first order of business is to enable discussion. (2) Video responses are disabled. I can kind of understand disabling YouTube comments (really not a big fan of YouTube commenters), but not video responses. That is where I would imagine Rep. Markey’s video would go, and where any other lawmaker, Washington power player, or citizen could post their views in video format. That takes a bit more effort than posting a six-word comment and would provide for the two-way dialogue that the Internet enables.

I’m going to have to echo Ellen’s previous post, “I don’t see how one-way messages provide any more transparency for the work of the White House or government than the current old style radio addresses.”

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After my post this morning about how the next Administration can make their communications more interactive, I ran across a nice piece by Dan Manatt, founder of PoliticsTV.com and TechPresident contributor, who wrote the Obama Tech Team a memo giving advice on what Web video programs they should create and implement to better govern.

Dan says:

Your campaign platform on digital democracy, ethics and transparency, lays out an excellent roadmap to begin bringing the Presidency into the 21st century. And of course the speculation has already begun on how change.gov will morph into whitehouse.gov - and what becomes of barackobama.com….

The technological transformation of the presidency - and its use of technology to make the executive branch more responsive, interactive, and transparent - can, from day one, be the first great achievement and legacy of the Obama Presidency. It can also be a means to continue togenerate political good will and capital - commodities that often evaporate quickly after a typical presidential honeymoon. So it not only makes good policy sense, it makes good political sense.

Here’s the short version:

(1)   WhiteHouse.gov/TV; (2) Weekly Obama Webcast; (3) GovTube; (4) Video Content on Non-Governmental sites; (5) in every executive branch agency, create New Media, Transparency, and Technology offices; (6) have cabinet members/agency heads give monthly Webcasts; (7) Webcast the Inauguration; (8) make the State of the Union an interactive, multimedia event; (9) make the President’s annual budget a digital, multimedia document; (10) enact all of this and more first by executive order, then through legislation, so future Administrations can’t just hard reboot your digital legacy.

Check out the full post.

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So this morning Jose Vargas reports in the Washington Post that the President-elect will record YouTube videos of his regular Saturday morning radio chats. The new administration is touting this as partial delivery on its pledge to use the Internet to engage with citizens and to create more transparency. But I actually don’t see it that way.

Yes, this move will give the new Administration another way to broadcast its message to  folks. And people on the receiving end don’t have to tune in at a specific time, the way you do for the radio address. No doubt more people will hear these weekly messages because of that and that’s a good thing. But what does a YouTubing talking head really do in terms of engaging citizens or for providing more transparency?

The way it’s been outlined thus far, we’re still looking at an old style  ”Fireside” chat in a new format. How about providing for a little more interactivity around it? Use the White House YouTube channel to solicit questions from people, and invite the public to vote their favorites to the top? That’s what David Cameron, the British Conservative Party Leader, did with “WebCameron.” And that’s what the bigdialog.org coalition is trying to do now. How about creating real conversations such as online chats with the president or cabinet officials? Or how about simply providing opportunities for people to respond to the messages, by opening up comments on the YouTube Platform.

And as for transparency, I don’t see how one-way messages provide any more transparency for the work of the White House or government than the current old style radio addresses.

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From Municipalist

As more states investigate use of YouTube as a multimedia portal (see California and Virginia), the state of Utah is working at building its own video platform. Dave Fletcher, the State of Utah’s Chief Technology Officer, says he is not only excited about Utah GovCast as it is, but about its potential. “More is happening,” he says simply. Is it ever.

“The site now provides a video search for several hundred videos as well as access to almost 30 different multimedia channels in Utah government,” Fletcher told Municipalist.

“Previously video content on Utah.gov had been uncoordinated and difficult to find,” Fletcher said. “We wanted to create a home for multimedia content that would eliminate this problem.

“We hope eventually to get everyone using a more standard format which will allow us to move to an even more visually appealing functional site in the future. We are also developing a better coordinated Utah.gov YouTube site that will be available in the near future.

“At the same time, we hoped to gain some momentum with agencies by making it easy for them as well to see what others are doing and benefit from their ideas.” Fletcher recommended these videos: Wasatch Fault Flyby,  Utah Is the Answer, and Utah Golf. Fletcher pointed out that Utah also has various YouTube channels which are somewhat consolidated here.

This is very cool. I hope make the videos embeddable and downloadable.  After Congress finally loosened its YouTube restrictions it is great to the states moving in a positive direction as well.  Excellent work Utah.  Can I suggest calling it Utahbe!

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Last year, the Open House Project proposed the loosening of rules governing what lawmakers can post to their official web sites. Last week, the Senate Committe on Rules and Administration approved new rules to allow lawmakers to post content from third party sites such as YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, and so on.

The new rules, while not immediately available for public review, appear to be far different from the ones proposed earlier this year. Earlier, Rules and Administration proposed to “keep a list of “approved Web sites” that agreed to provide pages free of advertisements or partisan leanings.”

In contrast to this proposal Republicans on the Committee offered a plan to allow lawmakers to post at their discretion, and in accordance with long-standing standards, with review by the Committee if necessary. The approved plan mirrors the Republican plan.

Kudos to the Senate for taking a step forward by allowing senators to more freely communicate across the Web.

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YouTube is offering a $10,000 fellowship with the Pulitzer Center for “high-quality video pieces focused on stories that are not usually covered by the traditional media.”  The first round is asking people to make a 3 minute video highlighting a person in your community.  They are taking submissions til October 5th.

This is a great opportunity for citizens to go out into their communities and report on what is really important and how individuals are making a difference.  There is a lot of news to be found especially when it comes to corruption in politics.  The best place to hold elected officials accountable is in your own backyard.  So get to muckraking super sleuths.

Get your cameras ready and good luck!

h/t to PJnet.org

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Check out this Bill Moyers expose on earmarking in Congress (unfortunately this is not the whole video). Steve Ellis, from Taxpayers for Commonsense, is interviewed and the Sunlight Foundation’s earmarking data is used in a graph at the beginning of the video.

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As David All and I have written, the rules governing member Web sites are not fit for the 21st Century Web. If the rules were enforced with any regularity, instead of used as a scarecrow to keep members from innovating, then some of the best practices by members on the Web wouldn't be happening. Case in point: Rep. George Miller (D-CA).

Today, George Miller announced a new campaign, called "Ask George," calling on citizens to send videos, through video sharing sites like YouTube, to Miller's office regarding the War in Iraq. Miller's office describes "Ask George" as a "distributed, virtual town hall". Miller also suggests that participants in this conversation "tag" their videos "askgeorge" so that his office can go and find the questions. This way, Miller is the one going out to seek the conversation rather than the citizen or constituent who is usually the one seeking out the congressman.

This is exactly the type of activity that allows members to communicate more effectively with their constituents, and Americans in general, about the issues that matter. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) asks people to send YouTubed questions for him to answer, to which he responds in kind. Miller's use of YouTube to engage in a conversation with citizens goes a step further though. He has worked with Splash Cast to create a Facebook application for the "Ask George" campaign and will be hosting an "Ask George" Facebook page for citizens to discuss with the congressman, and amongst each other, the War in Iraq.

This is by all accounts the first time that a member of Congress, in their official capacity, has gone to a social networking site to connect with citizens. The innovative use of social networking and video sharing sites by Miller's office is astounding considering the restrictions that members are told they have to abide by. It's time for more members of Congress to start communicating and connecting to people online as George Miller is. The barriers created by congressional Web use rules will cease to exist if members and their staff simply ignore them.

George Miller is one member of Congress leading the way in using Web 2.0 technologies to connect with constituents and citizens. This only enhances his ability to do his job. It's time for more members to lead with him.

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In a first for Congress, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) took a video camera and filmed the first user created video from the perspective of a Congressional Committee Chairman. This is an amazing step in the right direction for Congress as they grapple with adopting to new mediums of communication and new technology. Also, I’m glad that Rep. Markey has decided to embed his YouTube video on his member web site and push the envelope as David All and I suggest in the Open House Project section on Member Web Use Restrictions.

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This article in the Washington Post is the political class' (e.g. media, politicians, consultants, pollsters') lament that they've lost control of their candidate's message. But in fact it should be a celebratory piece about the fact that citizens are increasingly using the democratizing world of technology to spread the message about what candidates say and really think. Wouldn't you rather rely on YouTube clips, excerpts from speeches, and candid moments filtered by citizen journalists than political advertisements to tell you what a candidate really believes? No contest in my mind.

YouTube has put every campaign on notice that someone's watching," says Scott Reed, a Republican strategist who managed Sen. Robert Dole's 1996 presidential campaign. "This has been a real wake-up call to a lot of candidates who shoot from the lip when there isn't a big TV affiliate standing in the room. . . . Now they have to realize that every day is game day…

Someone's watching? You bet. And we're all better off for it.

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