What is Welcome to the White House?
Welcome to the White House is a key access point to government
information that is available
on the Internet, a network of computer networks used by people in
over 150 countries. Using a service on the Internet called the
World Wide Web (WWW), people all over the world can locate documents
that not only contain text but also include graphics, photos, sound, and
video.
Welcome to the White House was developed to improve the way the
Federal government uses the Internet to communicate and interact with the
American people. This site provides access to all the
government information and services that are available on the Internet.
This site enriches the government information available to citizens,
businesses, schools, libraries, and other institutions, and demonstrates
real progress in improving the National Information Infrastructure by
showing that the government is using information technology to make
itself more accessible and responsive to the public. Welcome to the White
House helps promote interaction with citizens by
offering government agencies a method to present their missions and
programs.
What can you do with it?
Welcome to the White House has four principal functions. First,
our service allows users to link to all
online resources made available by U.S. government agencies. A subject
index to government information and a
free-text searching engine
provide efficient access to White
House documents on a Publications server. All Cabinet-level agencies
are providing public information this way, as well as most of the
independent
agencies and commissions.
Our service provides an enhanced interface for sending electronic mail
to the
President,
Vice President, and
the First Lady,
which improves the handling and analysis of e-mail and the ability to
gather information from incoming messages.
Welcome to the White House provides indexing of all White House
publications so that finding and retrieving documents is made easier.
Finally, our service lets people view White House photographs and
listen to the President's Saturday radio addresses and other audio
segments. For example, we
offer people an historical
tour of the White House, the art
collection, and past
residents. To
serve our growing youth population and their teachers, the White
House for Kids lets them see the President's house from their
perspective.
How does it work?
Using software such as Mosaic (distributed for free by the
Federally-supported National Center for Supercomputing Applications) or
one of the commercial versions such as Netscape Navigator, people
with a communicating computer and an Internet connection are able access
the World Wide Web. Such "browsers" and the WWW provide an easy-to-use
graphical interface for the Internet by allowing words and images to be
used as direct links to additional information on related topics.
Simply by "clicking" on a linked word or image, a user can retrieve and
display new files and information effortlessly, without learning commands.
Who has access to it?
Of the 20 million or so who have access to the Internet, currently
several million Americans have access to the World Wide
Web. Most universities are connected to the Internet as are an
increasing number of public schools, libraries, local governments, and
other public institutions and non-profit organizations. Because it
makes the Internet significantly easier to use, the WWW is the
fastest-growing service on the Internet. However, since many people
have access to
the Internet but not at a level that supports graphical browsers, the
service has been designed to work very well with Lynx and other popular
text-based browsers.
What about people without computers?
People without computers can
call the Federal Information Center at 800-688-9889, which has access to
Welcome to the White House as well as other sources of information for
helping citizens.
What about people with disabilities?
Services on the WWW also are accessible with software that does not
display graphics, so they can be used with Braille readers and
voice-generation devices. The White House service has been specially
designed to facilitate access by people with text-only software such as Lynx.
What have you done to improve the service in 1996?
The art work has been revised to give the service a new look-and-feel.
The computer the service runs on has been upgraded. Most users will experience
better performance.
Information from government agencies is easier to find. Working with the
University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Welcome to the White House now
provides access to the best search facility for government information on the
Internet. People can enter a plain language question and be directed to where
information on that subject is available on all of the government sites on the
Web.
- Searching White House information is easier and the results are more
complete. The new service includes a powerful new search facility for finding
any document released by the White House since the start of the Clinton
Administration, ranging from key Administration documents to all Executive
Orders. The service retains its links to all other US government sites, but
now also includes theme pages that highlight useful government information in
key areas such as education and training, health and safety, etc.
- The new service makes extensive use of audio. Not only can citizens search
for documents, but they can search the archive of the President's Saturday radio
addresses and listen to the section of the speech in which the President talks
about what interests them. The new service also includes a database of photos
of important events in the Clinton Administration.
- There is far more material on White House history. The new service
includes biographies on each President and First Lady and an extensive tour of
the White House, including samples of the White House art collection. There
is also a new section specifically for children that is guided by Socks the Cat.
- The new service has friendlier ways to say hello and goodbye. The new Web
site displays a different picture of the White House depending upon the time of
day people are connecting to it. And when people leave the service it lets
them know they have moved beyond the boundaries of the White House service.
Who is working on this?
The project team includes the Office of the Vice President, the Office of
Communications, the Office of Science and Technology
Policy (OSTP), the Office of Administration, the National Economic
Council, and the Office of
Correspondence and Presidential Messages. Please send mail to Feedback
with any additional questions.
To comment on this service:
feedback@www.whitehouse.gov