In a move aimed at appeasing privacy advocacy groups, the Obama team has switched video serving services from Youtube to Akamai. The concern raised by advocacy groups relates to the use of cookies served by Youtube to every visitor of Whitehouse.gov. In response, Whitehouse.gov has decided to switch video serving and will now use Akamai. According to PaidContent.org:
“The main problem was that YouTube served long-term tracking cookies to every visitor to the president’s blog, even if they didn’t click “play” to watch the video; with Akamai there are no concerns about YouTube or parent company Google tracking visitors’ movements, since the videos are coming from the White House’s own servers now.”
What fascinates me about this move is less the technicalities of Akamai vs. Youtube privacy considerations, and more the mere fact that government is evolving in front of our eyes through use of technology. Weekly video chats, tweeting, direct emailing – all of these methods more directly connect our people with our government. Of course, we should expect much experimentation (and some inevitable mistakes) as new channels of connectivity are introduced.
The implications of this technological evolution will be significant as we increasingly expect and demand transparency and responsiveness to our real-time needs. I credit the new administration for a communication strategy that incorporates these new and exciting channels.
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-obama-drops-youtube-for-akamai-on-whitehouse-gov/
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