While I was working on a wholly unrelated post, I was pointed towards an interesting description of the new WhiteHouse.gov. To summarize: just after President-elect Obama is sworn in, a new official white house website will go online that promises to engage and involve citizens like never before.

Obama Transition Team Talks About The TIGR Initiative

Through crowdsourced idea generation and open commentary on government proceedings, the Obama administration is hoping to harness the power of new media to change the way things work in DC. The task is admirable and if anyone can pull it off, it’s these guys.  However, I do have my doubts both as a current MBA studying new media and as a former marketing staffer for several Washington, DC trade associations.

The problem with crowdsourcing is and will always be its subjective credibility in use as market research.  For instance, the president’s staff could easily compile both qualitative and quantitative evidence from the new website citing the support of an issue like gay marriage. When the staff tries to take this to lawmakers however, the data could be dismissed as not a credible reflection of the will of ALL the people.

Yes, the new white house website should definitely benefit the party in power by engaging and exciting his original supporters. Who knows, there is even a likely probability that some detractors may find the site useful, causing a slight shift in their perceptions because at least they are being heard. The challenge comes in the reality that until these tools go mainstream across all demographics in the nation, Washington power-brokering will remain a decidedly low-tech venture.

If the new administration really wants to power up these new tools; they need to lead with hard, scientific polling. Use that data to then show the credibility of the feedback garnered through the new tools.  Ultimately, that is what will prove the credibility of the new media tools, rather than trying to let the tools try to push their own credibility.

I, for one, am really excited to see what the Obama team does for not only government and the country, but for new media itself.  They have a chance to validate the vast majority of what the new media illuminati has been talking about for some time by getting whole new segments interested in what the technology can do.

Before that happens though, they have to prove that they can span the gap between it’s current novelty and its future credibility.