How Transparent is the White House?

On opensource.com, Jason Hibbets writes about a recent keynote address at Drupalcon, "Open Source in Government", by Dave Cole, Senior Advisor to the CIO of the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Drupalcon is a conference for developers and users of Drupal, an open source Content Management System that is used to drive websites, including whitehouse.gov. Drupal is available for free, and is open source software.

It's no secret that the Obama administration is about change. I think it's safe to say, one of the main philosophies of this administration is that change coming from the bottom up is embraced rather than smothered.

Cole said:

Change comes from the bottom-up. Ordinary people get together to achieve extraordinary things. In political advocacy we called it community organizing. Here in development, we call it open source. I think that's the fit.

Hibbets goes on to explain:

This mentality directly aligns with principles of the open source way like sharing, meritocracy, and community. Bottom-up initiatives, like community organizing, aren't new concepts. This approach is embraced because it's more effective than top-down directives. The participants who opt into community-organized initiatives are more passionate, committed, and driven.

One way this change is happening is with more transparency. The whitehouse.gov site runs on Drupal, an open source content management system, and provides a platform with user features like a briefing room, blogs, special features, and live video. Cole rhetorically asked what Drupal can do for government. The response: It's helping to drive the open government and open data movements because the nature of open source fits nicely with open government initiatives like being more transparent to citizens.

Atmayogi.com is powered by Drupal.