Communication, transparency, and participation…for a website such as WhiteHouse.gov, these three ideals are more a point of rhetoric than reality. I think the way the Director of New Media words his/the administration’s thoughts on transparency should be carefully considered. In my recent recollection on the administrations in my lifetime and from reading the histories of those in the past, White House administrations have not been transparent at all; so being “the most open and transparent in history” won’t be such a difficult task. In comparison with the outgoing administration, simply listing the administration’s thoughts thus far has made this administration more transparent. But remembering that rhetoric (the bad kind) is part of political life is most important…so understand that the most transparent in history does not necessarily mean being transparent…but translucence is better than opacity.
How would these work into my home page. Well, I am a profoundly private person so I would undoubtedly have at least 2 homepages: one for the people who KNOW me…one for all the others. These two pages would be different and most likely wouldn’t share much, other than I made them both. So I’ll tackle both, considering I think I’ll make both with only one appearing before this class.
Communication: In the webpage for those who know, communication will be open and flowing in both directions…I’d love to have a call and response type webpage…A BLOG…where the people who knew me best could comment, like Facebook or MySpace, but wholly private and ALL ABOUT ME! That sounded a little self-centered didn’t it…well it was supposed to. The webpage for all the others would present to the world what I wanted them to see…the business Dominic for instance. There is no way I would anything from the homepage for those who know me on the homepage meant to introduce people to the job-seeker, the professional, the guy with his head on his shoulders…basically everything I want people to think. The communication on this homepage would be sparse and one-way. It would only communicate what I wanted to portray of myself…because if people who didn’t know knew what I thought sometimes and how I put things together in my head…well lets say the walls on my room would have some extra padding.
Transparency: Transparency and communication go hand-in-hand. To be full transparent, you have to communicate everything. Needless to say, the homepage for those who know me would be far more transparent than the one for the others. Completely transparent? No, but you’d be able to make most of the details of my life…we all have our secrets (Dominic raise pinky to lip). But the homepage for the others would essentially be a wall with a picture on it…all façade.
Participation: Like I said in my splurge on communication, I’d like the homepage for those who know me to have two-way communication…I’d like there to be input/participation on the goings-on in my life. Tell me what you think, what you think I should have done, and most importantly, that I was RIGHT ALL ALONG! With the other homepage…the extent of the participation would be the ability to email me…perhaps with a job offer or interest in my areas of expertise…nothing personal to be had there.
Well, that’s what I think about that…
