Conventional wisdom be damned, and public polling too: it turns out that Americans are more satisfied with their federal government than ever before in the history of the republic.

We mentioned we're just talking websites, right?

The American Customer Satisfaction Index is out with its quarterly "egov" report on how pleased citizens are with the web offerings of different federal departments and agencies, and the score for Q4 of 2009 keeps up an overall trend -- Americans are at historic levels of satisfaction with online government in the United States.

That's a short history, yes. The ASCI study suggests, though, that a satisfying experience with a government website translates into a greater feeling of trust in that particular government agency and a greater willingness to engage in two-way communication with that office. That, the study suggests can help government operate more efficiently, as well as to help close the enthusiasm gap between how citizens feel about" egovernment" and government offline; overall, the ASCI score for citizen satisfaction with government websites is a respectable 75.2, while the score for government overall lags behind at 68.7.

You can download the full study here.

This morning there was an extensive piece published (on page three) in The Washington Post regarding the Obama Admisnistration’s web efforts. The article was titled, "Web-Savvy Obama Team Hits Unexpected Bumps: Issues of Technology, Security and Privacy Slow the New Administration's Effort to Foster Instant Communication," and it explores in some detail the efforts of Obama's new media team to deliver on the high expectations we all have for how they will use the internet.

I have huge respect for the writer Jose Antonio Vargas who has done terrific work covering the Internet and politics, but I need to point out that he (or his editors) left out a few words from my quote which ends the piece, and thus distorts my meaning.

A couple of days ago, I reviewed the launch of the new WhiteHouse.gov. Today, nearly 72 hours after Barack Obama's inauguration, the only official documents of the Obama Administration online are his inaugural address and his executive orders. President Obama has had public events to swear in his staff, announce the closing of Gitmo, and name envoys to the Middle East. The photo office has release some pretty striking photos of Obama's first day in office to the press. None of this content is online at WhiteHouse.gov.

As Republicans debate how to rebuild the party with new technology and stronger grassroots, watch for the media to fawn all over Obama's use of the Internet as President as he brings (some) of the tactics of his winning campaign to the White House.

It began this weekend with the release of President-elect Obama's YouTube address and the transformation of the anachronistic radio address. This generated an explosion of media interest, even though 1) the format is not especially compelling, and 2) at least initially, ratings and comments on the video have been turned off, preventing ordinary Americans from talking back -- contrary to what happened on My.BarackObama.com during the campaign.