Next US president to get clean social media slate, Obama posts to be archived

  01 Nov 2016 , 09:19

The next president of the United States will start with a huge following on Twitter but a clean slate of tweets. It’s all part of the peaceful transition of power in the social media age. The White House said Monday that Obama’s official @POTUS account will be taken over by the next president. Obama’s tweets will move over to a new handle, @POTUS44, maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration.

Similar changes will take place with Obama’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, along with other Twitter accounts, including Michelle Obama’s @FLOTUS and Joe Biden’s @VP accounts. The White House said it has three goals for the digital transition:

First, all the material published online during Obama’s presidency will be preserved with the National Archives and Records Administration, just as previous administrations have done with handwritten notes, faxes and emails. Second, materials will continue to be accessible on the platforms where they were created, allowing for real-time access. Third, the White House is working to ensure the next president can continue to use and develop the digital assets the Obama administration has created to connect directly with the people they serve.

Obama is leaving office with far more digital content to archive than any previous president. Thousands of hours of video and millions of photos will have to be transferred. Eventually, they’ll be available to download in compact form, such as zip files. The White House also said in a blog post that it’s inviting students, data engineers and others to come up with creative ways to archive the digital content and make it useful and available. The administration said it will make the material available early to people who are interested in building something for the public.

“From Twitter bots and art projects to printed books and query tools, we’re open to it all,” the White House said.

AP

US election pulls attention to Twitter but fails to help bring in cash

  28 Oct 2016 , 11:50

This year’s presidential election might be the perfect microcosm of Twitter’s woes. While some of the most memorable moments of the campaign for the White House have played out on the platform, Twitter has been unable to turn the attention and activity into ad dollars or user growth.

Well suited to quick updates on a noisy and unpredictable campaign, Twitter has been the dominant social media platform in 2016 for candidates, pundits and journalists. Republican nominee Donald Trump’s frequent tweeting of tirades against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, fellow Republicans and the media have been a mainstay of the campaign, setting off furious online debate.

But Twitter Chief Financial Officer Anthony Noto acknowledged when the company reported its quarterly earnings Thursday that the election has had “no noticeable impact” on Twitter’s user growth, which analysts say is essential for boosting revenue. Campaigns and political organizations told Reuters that Twitter is simply not a great medium for political advertising.

It is not as effective as rival Facebook at targeting crucial independent voters, and high-profile Twitter users like Trump and Clinton can use it as a megaphone without buying any advertising. “We haven’t really used Twitter, largely because our core mission is to reach those undecided voters,” said Alixandria Lapp, executive director of the House Majority PAC, which supports Democratic U.S. House of Representatives candidates.

A flood of hate speech and misinformation, which Twitter has done little to tamp down, can also be a barrier to ad buys, campaign digital strategists said. Facebook has emerged as the social media ad platform of

White House announces $300M in tech funding for digital health, smart cities, AI, and getting us to Mars

Image: White House Frontiers Conference

By Alison DeNisco | October 13, 2016, 1:03 PM PST

On Thursday, President Barack Obama hosted the White House Frontiers Conference, where he discussed America's initiatives to leverage tech for health, smart cities, and space travel.



On Thursday, the White House announced more than $300 million in funding, through partnerships, for tech innovations that will help Americans live in smart cities, improve healthcare, and even make it to Mars—while also addressing what increased automation could mean for job security.

At the first White House Frontiers Conference, co-hosted by the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, President Obama opened up a conversation on current innovations underway in America, and ones to come.

"We may be in a slightly different period now, simply because of the pervasive applicability of AI and other technologies," said President Obama in a video shown at the start of the conference. "High-skill folks do very well in these systems, and can leverage their talents and interface with machines to extend their reach, sales, products, and services. Low-wage, low-skill individuals become more and more redundant, and their jobs may not be replaced, but wages will be suppressed."

Here are the five frontiers of innovation the White House examined at