Inauguration Day didn’t simply usher in the 44th President heralded globally as hope for an Extreme Makeover: USA Edition. Exciting for web heads, the first change this President made, nearly on the dot during the botched oath was The White House official website.  Keep in mind, this is the president who talked about social networking on the campaign trail, embraced Twitter, now posts his weekly address via YouTube, and fought fiercely for his BlackBerry over the last few days.  Needless to stay, we web-heads are eager to hear his choice of national CTO and are thankful for the ways in which President Obama has and continues to embrace the Internet for a more transparent government and a more united America.

The first wired President clearly wasn’t just poking people on Facebook in the days before his Inauguration.  While Change.gov functioned as the transition hub, he also went to work (or should we say put others to work) on a new version of Whitehouse.gov that would be ready for January 20th’s festivities.  In past days, design, usability, social media, blogging, and video weren’t given attention, even in the land of the Internet that Al Gore invented.  Former President George Bush’s site design reflected his presidency in many ways, if you know what I mean.  President Obama appears to have carried over successful design and usability parameters as well as social media integration strategy from his previous sites, BarackObama.com and Change.gov.  Not to mention the online Briefing Room.  What a great concept in government, to use the web in this way!

So while President Obama’s administration is blogging about the year of the ox and his stance towards the Muslim world to try and heal the wounds of yesteryear, I recommend you visit the new WhiteHouse.gov site for yourself, grab his RSS feed, and start watching his weekly addresses on YouTube.  If government is going to be more transparent via the web, it’s up to all of us to keep tabs on it!

The Old Version of WhiteHouse.gov, courtesy George W. Bush:

:: written by @epsilonc ::

No more excuses, please!

2. Learn something new
If Newton could learn from something as ordinary as an apple (as legend has it), finding something to learn from shouldn’t be much of a problem.

Why don’t you learn Korean, a computer language, or better yet, volunteer?

3. Write a manifesto
“At its most base level, a manifesto is a written declaration of your principles and intentions. However, they can be a blast! Not only do you get to set forth what you believe, without justifying it, but you can also denounce everything you don’t like! You can use it focus your passion and fill yourself with a sense of purpose.” (from Creative Creativity)

Then share your’s at ChangeThis (aka Manifesto Central).

4. Make a Bucketlist
The only way to tell good stories is to live an interesting life. You probably have more than enough time on your hands anyway, so why not live an interesting life?

Tip: Remind your future self to live with 43 Things.

5. Be Useful

6. Sweat the Little Stuff (but only after sweating the big stuff).

7. Keep in touch
We all have friends who live in different cities, and sometimes all over the world. College ended, better (or worse) jobs come along, or the cold became unbearable, etc… There a million reasons people end up drifting apart.

Back in the day, that would have been a good enough to lose touch with old friends. Not anymore: today you have Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, bebo, GolfingMyWay, FriendFeeder, Skype, Youtube, and a million other ways to stay in touch.

8. Share good blog posts with 2 people you give a rats tail about (you can start with this one).