Biography
Barack Obama served as the 44th President of the United States from 2009 to 2017. His administration’s documented digital initiatives include a petition platform built into whitehouse.gov, and the conversion of the weekly presidential address from a broadcast slot into published video.
We the People
The White House launched We the People in September 2011 as a petitions platform hosted on whitehouse.gov. Anyone aged 13 or older could create or sign a petition; petitions crossing a signature threshold received an official written response, which was published alongside the petition. By its closure in December 2016 the platform had, on its own accounting, “gathered approximately 480,000 petitions, 29 million users, and 40 million signatures.”
The archive shows what it was used for. Petitions that crossed the threshold include appeals over the Merrick Garland nomination and a commutation request for Chelsea Manning — that is, the platform was used as a channel for campaigns on live political disputes, not only routine requests.
The Weekly Address
The weekly presidential address, a long-running radio format continued as a podcast under George W. Bush, was published under Obama as video through the White House site and video platforms. The full run is preserved in the administration’s archive.
Campaigns
The 2008 and 2012 campaigns are documented separately on the relevant timeline entries; claims about their operational methods are made about the campaign organisations rather than about the White House, and are not sourced on this page.
Sources
- 01.
The White House (Obama administration archive). President Barack Obama. Official biography. Source for 'Barack H. Obama is the 44th President of the United States,' his birth in Hawaii on August 4, 1961, service in the Illinois State Senate and the U.S. Senate, and his having been the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review.
- 02.
The White House (Obama administration archive). About We the People. Platform's own closing summary: 'From its founding in September 2011 to its closure in December of 2016, We the People gathered approximately 480,000 petitions, 29 million users, and 40 million signatures.' Also the source for the participation rules — 'Anyone 13 or older can create or sign a petition on WhiteHouse.gov' — and for the archived petitions and official responses.
- 03.
The White House (Obama administration archive). Your Weekly Address. Archive of the weekly presidential address as published by the White House press office in video form, the successor to the broadcast radio address.