Obama Team Challenges Web Developers

The Obama administration, which recently switched the Whitehouse.gov site to the open source Drupal platform, plans to engage open source developers in a discussion of how they can work better with government agencies. In a recent presentation to Drupal developers, White House new media director Macon Phillips, deputy director Dave Cole, and creative director Nick Lo Bue disclosed plans to add new features to WhiteHouse.gov, including custom news feeds, user authentication, and more tagged, searchable raw data. The White House will challenge developers to apply some of the best ideas they are already working on "for the public good," including for use by WhiteHouse.gov and elsewhere in the public sector, Cole said. An event is planned, though it's not clear when it will take place.