Never before has the coverage of the transition of power been so readily available to so many. The inauguration of President Barack Obama was seen and heard by millions on the National Mall Tuesday. The world also followed the event on TV and through videos, photos, map mashups and Tweets across the web.

It’s just a small sample of what Obama (arguably the nation’s first tech president) can expect. Instead of merely having to contend with the press corps, he’s also got the whole blogosphere and Twitterverse watching his every move. Naturally, his advisers and media people will be trying to capitalize on the online momentum, much as they did during the campaign.

While it has only been a matter of hours since Obama took the oath of office, the new WhiteHouse.gov website is already up, and considering the new man in charge fought hard to keep his BlackBerry, the next four years are sure to see a whole new era of how technology is used to connect the people to power.

“Just like your new government, WhiteHouse.gov and the rest of the administration’s online programs will put citizens first,” writes Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House in a new blog post.

“One significant addition to WhiteHouse.gov reflects a campaign promise from the president: We will publish all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days, and allow the public to review and comment before the president signs it.”

Hopefully he’ll update his Twitter account again soon as well. In the meantime, the Inaugural Committee had its own Twitter feed of updates prior to and during the event.

Interactive Inauguration of Obama Is Just the Beginning | Epicenter from Wired.com.

Dogged by Errors: A link to photos of the First Family mistakenly leads to a gallery of Presidential Pets. Oh well, it’s only Day 1.

Change certainly came to Washington Tuesday, but change.gov did not. President Obama‘s former transition Web site is now defunct, with a note sending visitors to whitehouse.gov. The official presidential Web address relaunched as a shiny social-media hub at 12:01 p.m.—even before Obama took his delayed oath into office.

Immediately, the twitterati and tumblr set were abuzz over the site, noting how similar it looked to the campaign’s previous sites (with its twilight blue background, Gotham font and a YouTube video highlighting the president-elect’s train journey this past weekend) and marveling at the new chief executive’s continued technological prowess. But it’s worth wondering how many of these observers had ever actually looked at President Bush‘s site. It also had news updates (much like the blog on Obama’s White House site), an “Interactive White House,” a newsroom-like “Setting the Record Straight” feature, and slideshows—and oh yes, that famous Barney cam.

So the real difference is that the new site glosses with the buzzwords of social media and pristine politics: transparency! Participation! RSS feed! All these look good on paper (or, in this case, on screen) but delivering on the many promises won’t be easy—making the Web site a near-perfect metaphor for the entire Obama presidency. The premier blog post, written by the director of new media, Macon Phillips, introduces a framework full of features, few of which are ready to use. Things that do work, like the slideshows, are rife with bugs. Early Tuesday evening, Obama’s new site still referred to him as the president-elect in some places, and a link to a gallery of first families shows you pictures of presidential pets. “[Phillips's] first message was just about openness,” says Rex Sorgatz, an online media consultant who runs fimoculous.com. “But you can’t just crack open a wiki and say, ‘Go at it.’ Even forums or comments won’t produce anything meaningful. You need to have a filter in order for productive discussions to rise to the top.”

Sorgatz and other Web experts agree that the new site has the framework to accomplish this, but that much will depend on how effectively Obama’s new media team develops applications. One plan announced by the White House is to let the public review and comment on non-emergency legislation for five days before the president votes on it. Another allows readers to suggest their own priorities for government, which other readers can vote on, with the most popular plans bubbling up to the Oval Office. “Everything’s worth a shot,” Sorgatz says. “But most likely, the things that will work on the site will be more targeted.” FULL ARTICLE BELOW:

Can New Whitehouse.gov Deliver on Its Promises? | Newsweek Politics: The Obama Presidency | Newsweek.com.

Malia Obama takes pictures during an inauguration celebration Sunday. (Credit: Jim Young/Reuters)

Looks like there’s a digital camera enthusiast moving into the White House. President Barack Obama’s oldest daughter, Malia, was busily snapping photos before the inauguration ceremony began. Her camera of choice (on this day) appeared to be a grape-colored $150 Kodak EasyShare M893.

Kodak EasyShare M893.

But that may not be the only model in her camera bag. At several pre-inaugural events Malia was seen taking photos using a silver-colored point-and-shoot. On Saturday, she snapped photos in Philadelphia, although People.com reported that she was using a loaner camera. At the Kid’s Inaugural Concert last night, she was using a similar point and shoot to photograph the Jonas Brothers.

Let’s hope she has a Flickr account.

A New Photographer in the White House – Gadgetwise Blog – NYTimes.com.

By Carey Gillam

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) – From billion-dollar ponzi schemes to bad mortgages and pay-to-play dealings by public officials, some are asking: Is there a crisis of ethics in America?

The swirl of corruption, fraud and greed stretching from Wall Street to Main Street has many U.S. church leaders saying the answer is a resounding yes — America is facing not only an economic meltdown, but also a moral one. And they are rushing to bring flocks back into the fold.

“Honesty is honesty. It doesn’t matter if you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, whatever. A lot of these debacles we’re seeing can be traced and sourced back to a lack of good old ethics,” said the Rev. Jerry Johnston, who this month launched a 12-part series of sermons on ethics at First Family Church in Overland Park, Kansas, which has about 5,000 members.

Johnston is one of a number of religious leaders and scholars who say the current spate of troubled times are an opportunity to lead more Americans into church pews and to prayer.

“We’re beginning to see this across the nation,” said Ken Eldred, a California technology company entrepreneur who writes books about the role of religion in business. “There has been a crisis of ethics … and I think sadly it is quite significant. People think business has nothing to do with faith, that honesty is not always the best policy. But when you take that away, people end up worse overall.”

For Full Article, see below:

Ethics crisis in America? Church leaders say yes | U.S. | Reuters.