Obama Gets (Even More) Social

Following up on some earlier posts of mine [The Transition Site, The Barack Brand, Two Camps Two Strategies] on Barack Obama’s obvious understanding of how web2.0 works. Obama’s Change.govt has recently launched a place  for citizens (anybody know if it’s only for US citizens??) to propose and vote on ideas:

Share your ideas on any issue facing the new administration, then rate or comment on other ideas. The best rated ideas will be gathered into a Citizen’s Briefing Book to be delivered to President Obama after he is sworn in.

I’ve got no idea how closely the New President will observe the results, or even actually act on what is proposed; but it’s nice to at least try to give people an official say in a way that aligns with the times. I suppose if enough people latch onto one thing – I mean like a literal phenomenon is born – the new US government will be obliged to at least acknowledge it. I fear everything people will suggest is the same old same old: For example the second most popular suggestion on the site is to decriminalise marijuana possession. But I hope, I really hope, someone will suggest something really revolutionary that will change America for the better, and it’s only now the web medium is available that people can rally behind it for positive change.

But more to the point of this post: Obama’s new administration is thrusting the benefits of the social web2.0 movement into the mainstream limelight… will companies take note? Will they two look to harness and commit to any of the useful tools of the current movements in web at their disposal? And most importantly will they continue to evolve and move with the progress towards web3.0?

I hope so.

Thanks to the team at Groundswell for the heads-up.

Update: ReadWriteWeb lists the Top 10 suggestions as of January 18th 2009