There are a lot of things that impress me about Barack Obama, but his desire to use technology to create transparency in government is one issue that truly does set him apart.

His campaign updates his YouTube channel about a half dozen times per day, often including in-depth interviews with promoters, footage of promotional stops, and many well-edited and mixed TV interviews. Hillary updates 3-5 times a week, mostly with ads and TV excerpts. I couldn't find an official John McCain outlet. His website includes community webware (think MySpace), and I'm sure helps the people within it organize more effectively.

So when he says that he wants to expand the workings of the first bill he passed as a congressman, his "Google for Government" program, to organize and make transparent the government's workings through technology, I believe him. That transparency can be seized upon by a concerned America, because the government isn't great at policing itself. Barack knows that.

In this way, his message is different from Hillary's: "We" versus "She." She wants to fix things. It's a noble sentiment. But Barack knows that no politician in Washington can fix the nation. WE have to do it, and we have to be enabled by political communities like on his website, and OnTheIssues.

There are other good examples of technology being used as part of sensible, positive change. He went to Detroit to insist that they change their technology (despite the tepid applause). He promised to help them by subsidizing R&D costs in exchange for progress and commitment from them and the American people. The Obama health care plan wants to streamline and digitize our medical records, most of which are inexplicably still on paper.

The lack of these credentials and ideas in the propositions and efforts on the part of the current administration (who prefers the destructive status quo), as well as that of McCain (who has no interest), and Clinton (who has no excuse, really).

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