An ad hoc story of America emerges from online posts to Change.gov

More than 3,500 comments posted at President-elect Barack Obama’s Change.gov Web site have been merged into a single document, creating a downloadable portrait of a nation in crisis that runs for more than 700 pages and nearly 500,000 words.

In merging the 3,572 comments, the Obama transition team has also utterly transformed them into something other than a series of disparate blog and e-mailed comments. They are now part of a searchable, portable and singular narrative that is, in many respects, an ad hoc story of America at this moment. It is, in sum, a collection of stories from a diverse group, written with emotion and passion by people — everyone from young adults worried about paying for college to young families worried about their children’s future, to people in their 50s afraid they are now too old to hire.

Many of the writers tell of hardship and fears, and some of the stories recount — in sometimes imperfect grammar — woes almost unimaginable…

Source: Computerworld

This entry was posted on Monday, December 15th, 2008 and is filed under Archives and Special Collections, New Websites and Resources, Source File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.