Recovering America

In the State of the Union Address, President Obama mentioned the resources at Recovery.gov, an online portal about how the funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be allocated that promises to offer transparency and accountability to taxpayers. It is interesting to note how a website launch has become so integrated into other presidential rhetorical gestures in the digital age. It is also worth observing that the site design mimics many aspects of the equally optimistically-named Change.gov, down to the Share Your Story page. Since announcing the White House Internet team, some might wish that someone with data visualization experience would have been included, given the complexity of federal spending and the need for being able to map and chart it interactively in new ways.