In five days over three thousand comments have been posted. This must present a daunting task to the members of the transition team that are tasked with monitoring the site. The sheer volume of words is overwhelming.

There are navagation problems because one can't easily return to a thread they are participating in. Nor is there any good way to get a sense of what themes are represented. 

The moderators will need to innovate. My recommendation (which I posted to them as feedback) was that they periodicaly publish a summary of the themes with links to threads that are typical. These summaries could incorporate quoted responses from administration officials, thus creating a dialog.

Without such an addition, this promising opportunity for direct constituent interaction could backfire.  People will surely resent it if they are asked to share their opinion and then do not see any indication that someone is paying attention. Like the non-commital form letter you often get from a congressman or senator to whom you write, you are left wondering why you bothered to write.

I'll be watching to see what Obama's staff does to make this work for them.

by Richmond Shreve (30 articles, 70 quicklinks, 17 diaries, 156 comments [5 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Dec 2, 2008 at 8:25:40 AM

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Here is a link to the Obama Transition team's response complete with video. They clearly are taking the comments seriously, and it appears that they use the favorability ratings to prioritize.

Overall, I'd say the response did not show that much interpretation or summarization has yet occurred, but it sounds as if two people are working on it.  Whether decision makers at the policy level get useful input will depend on how skillful these monitors are at their task.

Let's call this the baby steps phase and see where they go with it.

by Richmond Shreve (30 articles, 70 quicklinks, 17 diaries, 156 comments [5 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Dec 2, 2008 at 4:16:42 PM

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When visiting change.gov a few weeks ago, I noticed there were various  proposals listed by people, and they were asking us to vote for which one or ones we thought most important for the Obama administration to work on. The #1 proposal then was a request to put together a committee (not run by the Bush crew) to look into what happened on Sept. 11th, 2001, as the first commission report was totally flawed, as reported by the two top chairman themselves and plenty of others. There were 602 votes for it then, making it #1 by 400 votes. I voted for it too, because most of the changes we have experienced in the last 7 years are directly because of 9-11, and I am aware of all the problems with the first joke of a report. I later learned the Obama team removed the proposal completely.  That explains to me how important our views really are to Mr. Obama. I am now ready for more of the same!

by Mike Baldwin (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 30 comments [15 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Dec 3, 2008 at 12:31:54 AM

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In the past Obama has been straight forward when he wasn't going to accept a recommendation. He responded, albeit negatively.

Much of what I have seen here on this site about 9/11 has the flavor of a conspiracy theory and attracts a lot of anxious, angry comment, much of it on the whacky side of shrill. Since I know the reputation of  the commission members and trust their integrity, and since I know eye-witnesses, and people who were at ground zero shortly after the attack, I give no credibility to those who now say it was other than the official published conclusion.

Moreover, as the Hell's angels say, "The only way for three people to keep a secret is if two of them are dead."   Frankly, even that is no guarantee.  By now somebody inside the conspiracy, if there ever was one, would have confessed -- or written a book about it!

Give it a rest.

by Richmond Shreve (30 articles, 70 quicklinks, 17 diaries, 156 comments [5 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Dec 3, 2008 at 10:54:51 AM

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I wholeheartedly agree. But it's because of those like Mr. Shreve, who will never open their minds to the mountain of overwhelming evidence that 9-11 was a classic false-flag operation, that we can expect more of the same.

by Bill Cain (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 434 comments [67 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Dec 3, 2008 at 11:05:55 AM

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