• Melissa Jenna Compagnucci (didn't we see her in one of the YouTube debates?) posts a YouTube video plugging "Ask the President."
• The Washington Times on its support for "Ask the President."
• EchoDitto's Michael Silberman digs deep into the Obama tech operation and how it moved online enthusiasm into on-the-ground activism. The secret? Data, data, data.
• The Obama team is recruiting new media directors for various government agencies. Details here.
• Recovery.gov is spawning a web of sites and structured data at a fast pace, writes Greg Elin.

On the first full day of his presidency, Barack Obama issued an executive memo calling on the government to become more transparent, participatory and collaborative. He wrote:

My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.

Of course, public participation is a two-way street. That's why, today, Personal Democracy Forum is proud to announce that we are partnering with a cross-partisan coalition of old and new media in launching "Ask the President," an open, collaborative, participatory forum where anyone can post a question and vote up their favorites. Our lead partners, The Nation magazine and The Washington Times, have committed to send a credentialed journalist to every presidential press conference armed with a list of the top citizen-driven questions, aiming to ask the President at least one generated by the public.