whitehouse.gov is the official website of the White House and is owned by the United States government. It was launched in October 1994 by the Clinton Administration.
Jonathan Edward Favreau is an American political commentator, podcaster, and the former Director of Speechwriting for President Barack Obama.
Patrick Gaspard is a lifelong community activist, and an American former diplomat who currently serves as the president of the Open Society Foundations. Gaspard has overseen the Open Society Foundations’ advocacy work in Washington and Brussels, as well as provided strategic direction and oversight to the organization’s programmatic agenda. He became the president of OSF upon the departure of Chris Stone, which was announced in September 2017. OSF is funded by George Soros who believes “The main obstacle to a stable and just world order[...] is the United States.”
Citizen's Briefing Book is a compilation book of recommendations made to President Barack Obama by visitors to the Change.gov website, given to the President after his January 20, 2009 inauguration. Internet users were able to post recommendations of changes they would like to see made in the United States, and they were also able to vote on other users' recommendations, as well as participate in a comment process.
Macon Phillips is a U.S. public servant who served as the Coordinator of the United States Department of State Bureau of International Information Programs from 2013 to 2017. He reported to Rick Stengel, the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Phillips is the former White House Director of New Media, in which capacity he had oversight responsibility for WhiteHouse.gov. Phillips' work on WhiteHouse.gov closely coordinated with internet operations at the Democratic National Committee, which has responsibility for administration of the BarackObama.com domain and website. At precisely 12:00 p.m.ET during the inauguration of Barack Obama, Phillips oversaw the conversion of Whitehouse.gov, the official website of the President of the United States. At 12:01 p.m., he posted the site's first blog entry, titled: Change has come to WhiteHouse.gov.
Joshua DuBois is an executive and former government official who served as the head of the Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships in the Executive Office of the President of the United States from 2009 to 2013. In February 2013 he stepped down to write a book of devotionals based on the ones he sends Obama, start a consulting firm, and become the weekly religion and community solutions columnist for Newsweek and The Daily Beast. DuBois has been included among "The Root 100" and Ebony Magazine's "Power 150" lists of the most influential African Americans in the country. He also appeared on the cover of Christianity Today magazine as one of the 33 most influential Christian leaders under 33. In September 2017 it was announced that DuBois would become a CNN Contributor.
The Federal Chief Information Officer of the United States, also known as the United States Chief Information Officer, is the administrator of the Office of Electronic Government, which is part of the Office of Management and Budget. The President appoints the Federal CIO. The appointee does not require Senate confirmation. It was created by the E-Government Act of 2002.
Jesse Lee was named the White House Director of Progressive Media & Online Response on May 23, 2011. This is a newly created position to help maintain the President's online presence as he prepares for his 2012 Presidential reelection bid. The duties of this position, dealing with negative or factually incorrect stories about the President, was formerly handled by the Democratic National Committee's rapid response team. Lee’s first tweet about his new position included a picture of The Terminator.
Blue State Digital is a digital strategy and technology firm that specializes in online fundraising, advocacy, social networking, and constituency development. It was founded by former staffers of Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign and provided digital strategy and technology services for the 2008 and 2012 Barack Obama presidential campaigns. The company is led by the one remaining co-founder, Joe Rospars (CEO). Co-founder Jascha Franklin-Hodge left in July 2014 to become the Chief Information Officer for the City of Boston.
We the People, launched September 22, 2011, is a section of the whitehouse.gov website for petitioning the administration's policy experts. Petitions that meet a certain threshold of signatures are typically reviewed by Administration officials who prepare and issue official responses, however, this is not always the case. Criminal justice proceedings in the United States and other processes of the federal government are not subject to White House website petitions. We the People, rather, serves as a public relations device for the current White House administration to provide a venue for citizens to express themselves. On August 23, 2012, the White House Director of Digital Strategy Macon Phillips released the source code for the platform. The source code is available on GitHub, and lists both public domain status as a work of the U.S. federal government and licensing under the GPL v2. On December 19, 2017, the Trump administration announced its intention to temporarily shut down the website and replace it with a "new platform [that] would save taxpayers more than $1m a year."
Barack Obama won the 2008 United States presidential election on November 4, 2008. During campaign, by using social media and mobilizing the general public online, Obama was able to raise awareness and financial support of his campaign. Obama used over 15 social networking sites.
The Presidential Innovation Fellows program is a competitive fellowship program that pairs top innovators from the private sector, non-profits, and academia with top innovators in government to collaborate on solutions that aim to deliver significant results in months, not years. It was established in 2012 and has operated continuously since then. The program focuses on generating measurable results, using innovation techniques from private industry such as Lean Startup, Design Thinking, and Agile Development.
The OpenGov Foundation is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that bridges the gap between citizens and government with modern technology, data and design thinking. The organization conducts user-centered research inside legislatures like the United States Congress, develops software for those who serve in government, and helps governments create policies and rules that support openness and effective engagement with the public.
The following is a timeline of the presidency of Barack Obama, from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015. For his time as President-elect, see the Presidential transition of Barack Obama; for a detailed account of his first months in office, see First 100 days of Barack Obama's presidency; and for a complete itinerary of his travels, see List of presidential trips made by Barack Obama.
Barack Obama's farewell address was the final public speech of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States, delivered on January 10, 2017 at 9:00 p.m. EST. The farewell address was broadcast on various television and radio stations and livestreamed online by the White House. An estimated 24 million people watched the address live on television. The speech and its transcript are available on the archived version of the Obama White House website.
Alvand "Alvin" Salehi is an American tech entrepreneur, attorney and angel investor. He is the co-founder of Shef, Code.gov and a former White House technology advisor under President Obama.
Ben Self is the current chairman of the Kentucky Democratic Party, having been elected in November 2017. He was a co-founder for digital strategy firm Blue State Digital and is co-founder of West Sixth Brewery in Lexington, Kentucky.
Tom Cochran is a former Obama Administration appointee, having served both in the White House and Department of State between 2011 and 2016. He is a partner and the Chief Growth Officer at 720 Strategies, as well as a keynote speaker, writer, and adjunct professor at American University.
The Office of Digital Strategy is an Executive Branch agency that promotes the U.S. president's messaging with online engagement efforts and digital media. It is part of the White House Office. The office offers internships. This office is responsible for whitehouse.gov for example.
Cristin Ann Dorgelo is the President Emeritus of the Association of Science and Technology Centers, where she previously served as President and CEO. She served as the Chief of Staff at the Office of Science and Technology Policy during the Barack Obama White House.
