House GOP Overhauls Web Presence
The House Republican Conference has launched a new GOP.gov, the official Web site of House Republicans in the 111th Congress. The updates are meant to enhance citizen engagement through blogs, a legislative digest, interactive features, video, radio addresses and the option to receive automatic updates when content is published.
Scott Graves, a publisher of Republican blogs, said it looks like the GOP is taking a "play from the playbook of the Obama campaign." The site's designer clearly recognized that what Democrats did in 2008 worked, he said. "The Republicans over the last few months have finally recognized that they are going to need to focus real attention and real resources on their online communication efforts," Graves added. He said he hopes the GOP will look to emerging technologies in 2012 rather than relying on what worked in 2008.
The current home page of GOP.gov asks Americans to share their stories about how they are doing in the economy and whether a person has "personally benefited in any way from the billions of dollars in bailouts?" It is also includes a number of updated links to news on the economic stimulus deal and GOP resolutions. "It is a very sophisticated Web site with lots of bells and whistles: blogs, RSS feeds, videos, and detailed policy content. It is much more advanced than the typical public sector Web site," e-government expert Darrell West wrote in an email.
Erick-Woods Erickson, who is managing editor of the conservative Web site RedState.com, added that the Republican Party in general "can learn a few lessons from the House GOP." The Democratic site, Dems.gov, is more dated and still lists former House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel as holding his former position. Caucus spokeswoman Emily Barocas said her Web team was working on updates that will make the site "technologically advanced and user friendly." -- Winter Casey
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