The first tweet the White House Twittered was not about the weather. It had nothing to do with how the President was feeling, what he was doing or what he wanted for lunch. The First Dog, Bo, failed to receive even an oblique mention.
Instead, the Obama Administration jumped with both feet into the 140-character Twitterverse on May 1 with a one-sentence post on how Americans can learn about swine flu directly by joining social networks with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "We wanted to use these tools to some end, some effect, some public good," said Macon Phillips, the White House Director of New Media. (See the best social-networking applications.)
So it has gone in the first few months of the Obama Administration. At the new President's urging and by his example, the entire Federal Government has bounded into the world of social-networking. Twenty-five agencies now have YouTube channels. The Library of Congress has begun posting thousands of free historical photos on Flickr. In the past week alone, about 30 agencies, including the White House, have joined Facebook.
"The whole pondering process — Should we do it? Should we not do it? — has been truncated because the White House is doing it," says Theresa Nasif, director of the Federal Citizen Information Center, which helps coordinate Web outreach. "It's very exciting to be in government."
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