There’s been a lot of talk over the past week about the new look of WhiteHouse.gov, from its blue hues to change.gov-inspired blog (this and other screen shots can be zoomed-in by clicking on them):
Jon Henke summarizes the key issues about the Bush to Obama layout and concludes that the goal of the Obama Administration online should be to bring government infrastructure up to speed on technological innovations, not to align its online space with current internet standards.
The Obama team doesn’t need to focus on bringing new, cutting edge ideas to the internet. They need to focus on bringing the government up to speed on the things that are already commonplace for average people on the internet.
I agree, as it relates to a comment I added on Adriel Hampton’s blog a few days ago about so-called Government 2.0 engagement.
To better understand my and Henke’s perspective, let’s rewind time and see what the presidential website looked like over the years…
Beginning with the Clinton Administration in 1998, you can see the site was very vanilla with simple links aligned along the left margin.
In 2000, the layout shifted with center-justified content.
A year later, with George W. Bush entering office and the White House shifting political parties, the website undergoes a drastic change.
During GWB’s second year as President, the site underwent another drastic change.
Subsequent years of the eight-year Bush Administration saw slight changes in the order of content in the left sidebar, such as this view from 2005:
Another shift from two columns to three occurred in 2007:
My guess is nobody outside of the White House really knows what whitehouse.gov will look like in three months, six months, or two years down the road. Maybe they don’t know. As Saul Hansell opined in the New York Times a few days ago:
…there is the lingering question about how many of the Web site’s lofty aspirations will survive the rough work of governing in a complex world and cynical capital. But Mr. Obama underscored his commitment to transparency in his inaugural address…
Time will tell.
Credit for the above screen shots goes to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, via web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.whitehouse.gov. If you are curious what websites look like on given days in the past, the Internet Archive is the place to go.
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Very nice!
Adriel Hampton´s last blog post..If I Don’t Know Who You Are, I Can’t Evaluate What You Say
Great look back in history, Ari!
Rachel Levy´s last blog post..Confused by all the Twitter programs??
Love this post. Great to see the evolution of the digital White House. Except is saddens me that I didn’t think of it first.
Jesse Luna´s last blog post..Please don’t feed the spammers
That plays out as a history of web design over the past decade too. The new site is definately Web 2.0. Impressive.
Gennaro´s last blog post..6 Steps To A Lucky Chinese New Year
Don’t feel sad, Jesse. You can trace the evolution of Senate.gov. Or Microsoft.
I’m surprised at how many times the site changed during the Bush years – it’s as if they couldn’t decide what they really wanted. Or were they trying to keep up with the rest of the web? I wonder if each change coincided with a negative event like the response to Hurricane Katrina.
Kim Woodbridge´s last blog post..How to Make a Post Sticky in WordPress 2.7
Interesting times Ari!
I’d be interested in understanding how senior the interest and direction was for the Whitehouse website over time. This could have a lot to do with the understanding of the impact of the site and the corresponding design.
The picture of George Bush (Senior or Junior) in front of a PC cutting code doesn’t quite work for me.
Craig Thomler´s last blog post..Social Media and the Federal Government – Perceived and Real Barriers and Potential Solutions
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