So, what’s the dilemma? Well, it’s actually more of a fear than a dilemma. I worry that bloggers (from either side of the fence, to be fair) will criticize the Obama team for not treating the new WhiteHouse.gov blog as a traditional blog (or, rather, how we’ve come to define a traditional blog… with open comments, strikethrough edits and the like). I anticipate that closed comments, highly-filtered info, and heavily-edited prose may be thrashed by critical eyes (and countered with unforgiving keystrokes).

I hope this fear is unfounded. I hope that the blogging community can accept that the use of social networking tools in this capacity must be politicized (such a gloppy, misused word anyway). This is not a case of the Obama team trying to talk the talk and tripping over their own priggish walk… They get it; it’s clear from how they ran the campaign that they get it. I just hope that the community takes the social networking and blog push from the Obama team for what it is – a measured, accountable, pulling-back of the executive curtain in a fitting way – and not for what it’s not and never can be…

This ain’t no JenniCam on the WH Master Bedroom, folks. Media transparency in the White House is (and needs to be) a relative term.

So, a toast to you, Obama New Media Team… Here’s to responsible openness within a rapidly changing mediascape:

(Amazing pic courtesy of Boston.com’s Big Picture feature)

Check out the full release, and send your messages of support to the YesWeCan Wiffiti screen!

Rather just sit back and watch the voices unfold across the globe? Just pull up the screen and track live, relevant feeds from Flickr, Twitter, and Wiffiti stream in as we all witness history unfold together…

Watch Wiffiti simultaneously with inauguration coverage online and on tv, and now we’re talking about truly social media.

To add to the intense buzzy-buzz of the day, we’ve teamed up with ObamaMinute to make Wiffiti the interactive centerpiece of the media FRENZY in Times Square today!

Check out our social media release, which has lots of new resources to view and share… as well as the official release.

*Also, a big shout-out to Ken and Dury and the others I met in line at the Somerville polls this morning… and both of whom sent messages to the Obama screen already!

As a first step, check out two of the best mobile sites I’ve found: Google Election News Tracker and CNN’s America Votes mobile site. I have the Goog app bookmarked on my iPhone (see my strangely red hand holding up said app below), and it’s a great quick resource pulling in the latest election-related rss feeds. It’s really nothing fancier than a simple pre-loaded search query, but helpful on the go.

Slate.com also released a sweet little iPhone app called Vote Tracker 08 (99 cents at the app store) that’s been getting positive reviews.

Moving beyond the mobile web, I urge you to follow Paul Notzold’s Txtual Healing 10 Nights, 10 Cities, 4 States, 1 Obama Road Trip ’08!

And, of course, don’t forget to send your Wiffiti support to the Obama Minute Billboard in Times Square!