Gone for a month! Viva Barcelona! Please vote wisely next month

I’ve tried to keep my distance from politics on Awesome DC, but my conscience prevents me from ignoring this untold story. Perhaps, if I didn’t have a personal connection to it, I wouldn’t bother with this blog post, which also involves US foreign policy and next month mid-term election. PLEASE vote wisely. We can’t afford having another Rumsfeld and Cheney.

Before I begin with the story, I want you to all know that I’ll be on the other side of the Atlantic starting this coming Monday till Nov 23^rd. I’ll be visiting a few countries, as well as my hometown Shiraz, and my family. I will offer my condolences and respect to the family of a dear friend I recently lost, who is also part of the story, and will finally be chilling in Barcelona with some cool high school and army friends. In the meanwhile, I’ll continue with my blogging and will be working on our next venture, Awesomize.me, dependent of course on the type of internet access I’ll have in the VERY remote areas I will be staying at.

So please, keep your Tech and Washington DC stories coming via our contact us page. We have four people reading your emails and stories, so rest assured, one of us will post it on the website.

The Administration in the Palm of our Hand

by Elias Shams
You have to admit! This is the first administration that has stayed way the head of the technology curve. They have been working hard to harness all digital channels to effectively communicate with citizens. As the mobile phones are slowly becoming our next computing device, the White House is trying to make sure we can watch them in the palm of our hand starting with iPhone.

Earlier this week, the White House released their own official free iPhone and iPod Touch App known as “White House App” to the iTunes App Store. The free App will allows us to see content from the WhiteHouse.gov including the News, Press Briefing Room, White House Blog posts, archived video of events and speeches. The one feature I am looking forward to try, is the ability to stream live video coverage of events, including next week’s State of the Union Address from WhiteHouse.gov/live.

I haven’t downloaded the App yet, but feedback from friends who did, is good. The app is clean, light on size, easy to use and informative. What I am impressed the most, is they are already working on the App for other smart phones including Android, Droid ,  Nexus One , etc.  They will be released in coming weeks.

From my experience, It is not that easy and cheap to make an App for iPhone and shortly after for Android, and other phones. I wonder if the administration is using Appmakr, the product I recently covered that allows companies to make their Apps for various platforms (iPhone, Android, Droid, etc.) in the matter of 10 minutes. If they aren’t, they should. They will save both time and money. After all, their office is only four or five blocks from the White House.

That is a major stride towards open government. Can you imagine Bush or any GOP leader doing something like this? That’s a laugh 🙂

The free White House App is available from the iTunes App Store.

//