Credit: GOOD Magazine

It's sometimes worth stopping and considering for a moment just how weird it is that the White House is, in 2010, a somewhat credible member of the greater blogosphere. Not weird in a judgemental way, but unusual in the way that, contrary to the normal course of history, the lines between 1600 Penn and the rest of the world seem to be blurred by the advent of the always-on digital conversation. On the communications front, at least, we're witnessing a White House that seems to have a certain permeability. They're aware of Internet traditions, and are not afraid to appropriate them where appropriate. This is, in other words and for whatever it's worth, a White House that retweets.

Prompting today's stop-and-consider is that the Obama White House has just made note on its blog that it's going to be participating in a rather bloggy exercise: asking the American people to respond to a question on either Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. They're calling it The White House Asks. "As an extension of the Administration’s commitment to making government more collaborative and participatory," blogs a member of the new media team, they will "highlight some of the most interesting responses on the White House blog."

The first question in The White House Asks series is this:

What does a 21st century education mean to you?

Where'd they get the good idea? Well, from GOOD, it seems. That California-based magazine has been doing pretty much the exact same experiment on their blog. For that, the White House gives "a hat tip to @GOOD for a good idea."

Credit: IdealWare

The non-profit IdealWare surveyed more than 400 staffers at various non-profits back in November to find out what social media tools they're using, and whether they're finding those applications are meeting their organizational needs on three fronts: reaching new allies, fundraising, and deepening their relationships with existing supporters:

Respondents considered Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, and video- and photo-sharing sites reasonably effective -- at least at outreach and enhancing existing relationships. MySpace was not as well-thought-of, and ranked lowest for each of the three goals. LinkedIn was considered comparatively effective for fundraising, but lagged behind everything but MySpace for the other goals.

How the reports speaks to your organizational objectives depends on what those objectives are, so check out the full 20-page study here. But spoiler alert: non-profiters seem to find Twitter the Swiss Army knife of social media tools.

Marc Ross, Christine Stineman, and Chris Lisi of 2ndSix, Tribe Effect and Chris Lisi Communications have just published a very interesting report looking at how 102 big Washington-based trade associations and advocacy groups are--or aren't--making use of an array of 14 core social media tools and platforms. The results shouldn't surprise anyone; it's still pretty obvious that a year after Barack Obama's electoral victory, most inside-the-Beltway still have a very cautious and traditional attitude towards social media.

But the individual breakdown by organization and the thoroughness of the research (which covers a ten week span ending October 2, 2009) ought to serve as a wake-up call for many groups. Because the results are pathetic: "75 of the organizations reviewed [are using] four or fewer online new media tools. The average score of the organizations reviewed was 24%, meaning 76% of the most commonly used social media tools are not being utilized to communicate with members, voters and other constituencies."

Did you catch all those folks in white coats at the White House yesterday? The Obama Administration has seized upon the idea that doctors are terrific and trusted ambassadors for health care reform, and they're hoping that LinkedIn might help turn a one-day photo op into a movement. The White House will later today, they say, turn to the professional social networking site to "expand that conversation exponentially, allowing thousands of other doctors and medical professionals to engage, to tell us what they deal with day to day, and to get a real, substantive response from the White House."

LinkedIn estimates that there are 130,000 or so medical professionals already on the network.

The quest for the conservative MoveOn continues; Bittergate erupts from a citizen journalist's reporting; Bitter Voters for Obama supports their candidate; a Twitter feed reports every new superdelegate to declare his or her support; what's being reflected in Dick Cheney's sunglasses?; and grading the candidates' use of LinkedIn.

It's the big day! We'll be liveblogging here at techPres starting at around 7:30; "if web traffic equalled votes.." If only!; Barack Obama is officially the hockey-stick candidate; MTV's Street Team '08 fans out across the country; a majority of Facebook users tell pollsters that Hillary Clinton would be a bad choice for president; Tim Wu on Net neutrality and Obama; two polls from LinkedIn and MySpace give show a preference for Obama; Noam Scheiber interviews Joe Trippi; Obama is encouraging supporters to email and call their friends, even if they're too busy watching the "Yes We Can" video; a look at the candidates use of technology in the final push before Super Tuesday; and why Fred Thompson's blog was good, even if his campaign, er, wasn't.