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whitehouse.gov

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whitehouse.gov
Opening page as of November 2022
Type of site
Government
Available inEnglish, Spanish[a]
OwnerFederal government of the United States
URL
CommercialNo
LaunchedJuly 29, 1994; 29 years ago (1994-07-29)
Current statusActive
The earlier website during the presidency of Bill Clinton in 1995
The modern website following the first inauguration of Barack Obama in 2009

whitehouse.gov (also simply known as wh.gov) is the official website of the White House and is managed by the Office of Digital Strategy. It was launched in 1994 by the Clinton administration.[1] The content of the website is in the public domain or licensed under Creative Commons Attribution license.[2]

Content[edit]

The content of the White House website is designed to be an open portfolio for the public to know the current operations of the president during their presidency. The website contains information about the president, the vice president, their families, press releases, proclamations, executive orders, and a transcript of speeches by White House officials.

The website also provides information about the current issues the president and vice president address (like education, healthcare, etc.), also providing information about the history of the White House building, Air Force One, and Camp David. The website also reviews the structure of the federal government of the United States, including details about state and local government, along with voting and elections.

The website also offers information about getting involved with the White House. This includes directions on how to write or call the White House, as well as details about the White House Internship Program and the White House Fellows Program.

The site also contains information about the current Cabinet of the United States and the Executive Office of the President of the United States.

Site's difference in each administration[edit]

After a new administration is sworn in on Inauguration Day, the website is immediately redesigned for the new administration. Past administration websites are archived by the National Archives.

List of prior whitehouse.gov websites:

Civic engagement[edit]

Main article: We the People (petitioning system)

On September 1, 2011, David Plouffe, Senior Advisor to the President of the United States to Barack Obama, announced in an email that the White House was releasing "We the People", an online platform for the public to create petitions to the US Government. The launch of the petitioning platform was announced by Katelyn Sabochik on September 22, 2011 in a White House blog post.[3]

On December 19, 2017, the Trump administration announced its intention to temporarily shut down the platform and replace it with a "new platform [that] would save taxpayers more than $1m a year", though ultimately it was retained in its initial form.[4] On January 20, 2021, the day of the inauguration of Joe Biden, the platform started redirecting to the main whitehouse.gov domain, marking the discontinuance of the feature by the incoming administration. It has not been relaunched since.[5]

Platform[edit]

See also: List of Linux adopters and Linux adoption

In July 2001,[6] the White House started switching their web servers to an operating system based on Red Hat Linux and using the Apache HTTP Server.[7] The installation was completed in February 2009.[8][9][failed verification] In October 2009, the White House web servers adopted Drupal, a free and open-source content management system,[10][11] which runs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.[12]

In December 2017, the Trump administration launched a redesigned website which it claimed would save taxpayers "almost $3 million per year".[13]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ A Spanish version of whitehouse.gov is currently available under the Biden Administration and was also used during the Bush and Obama administrations. During the Trump Administration, the Spanish version of whitehouse.gov was removed. There is also archived Spanish versions of the website from the Bush and Obama administrations.
  2. ^ The Clinton version of the site was archived several times during the administration and this is last archive of the site. Other versions can be found by changing the id in the URL between 1 and 5.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "The Clinton White House Web Site". Archived from the original on July 22, 2011. Retrieved August 30, 2011.
  2. ^ "Copyright Policy". whitehouse.gov. January 16, 2017. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  3. ^ "White House blog press release regarding the new "We the People" petitioning platform". whitehouse.gov. September 22, 2011. Archived from the original on January 20, 2017. Retrieved March 2, 2021 – via National Archives.
  4. ^ "White House to 'temporarily' shut petition website". BBC News. December 19, 2017. Archived from the original on July 16, 2018.
  5. ^ "Fact check: Did the Biden administration remove the White House petitioning system?". Newsweek. February 17, 2021. Archived from the original on March 22, 2021.
  6. ^ Leyden, John (July 24, 2001). "White House Web site moves to Linux". The Register. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  7. ^ Rodrigues, Savio (October 28, 2009). "How Whitehouse.gov Will Bring Open Source To The American Spotlight". LinuxProNews.com. Archived from the original on January 20, 2021. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  8. ^ Vaughan-Nichols, Steven J. (October 29, 2009). "Obama Invites Open Source into the White House". PC World. Archived from the original on February 17, 2019. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  9. ^ Netcraft (August 26, 2011). "OS, Web Server and Hosting History for whitehouse.gov". Netcraft. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  10. ^ Holdren, John P. (July 7, 2010). "Office of Science & Technology - Open Government Plan". Office of Science and Technology Policy. Retrieved October 15, 2021 – via National Archives.
  11. ^ Ryan, Justin (April 22, 2010). "Oval Office Goes Open Source". Linux Journal. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  12. ^ "Red Hat's Decade of Collaboration with Government and the Open Source Community". Red Hat. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  13. ^ "White House website redesigned to save taxpayers '$3 million per year'". Washington Examiner. December 14, 2017. Retrieved October 15, 2021.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Whitehouse.gov.
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