whitehouse.gov (also simply known as wh.gov) is the official

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wi ...

of the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

and is managed by the

Office of Digital Strategy The Office of Digital Strategy (ODS) is an Executive Branch agency that promotes the U.S. president's messaging through traditional and social media. It is part of the White House Office and is led by the assistant the president and director of di ...

. It was launched on July 29, 1994 by the Clinton administration. The content of the website is in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

or licensed under

Creative Commons Attribution A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work".A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song/lyrics ...

license.

Content

The content of the White House website is designed to be an open portfolio for the public to know the current operations of the President during his/her presidency. The website contains information about the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

, the

Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

, their families, press releases, proclamations, executive orders, and a transcript of speeches by White House officials. The website also provides information about the current issues the President and Vice President address (like

Education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...

, Healthcare, etc.), also providing information about the History of the White House Building, Air Force One, and Camp David. The website also reviews the structure of the

Federal government of the United States The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fe ...

, including details about

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

and

Local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-l ...

, along with Voting and Elections. The website also offers information about Getting Involved with the White House. This includes directions on how to write or call the White House, learn about the White House Internship Program and White House Fellows program. The site also contained details about the presidents

Cabinet of the United States The Cabinet of the United States is a body consisting of the vice president of the United States and the heads of the executive branch's departments in the federal government of the United States. It is the principal official advisory body to ...

and the Executive Office of the President of the United States

Sites difference in each administration

After a new administration is sworn in on

Inauguration Day The inauguration of the president of the United States is a ceremony to mark the commencement of a new four-year term of the president of the United States. During this ceremony, between 73 to 79 days after the presidential election, the pres ...

, the website is immediately redesigned with the details of the new administration and designed the site to the needs and vision of the new administration. Past administration websites are archived by the National Archives. List of prior Whitehouse.gov websites: * https://clintonwhitehouse5.archives.gov * https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov * https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov * https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov

Civic engagement

On September 1, 2011,

David Plouffe David Plouffe (; born May 27, 1967) is an American political and business strategist best known as the campaign manager for Barack Obama's successful 2008 presidential campaign. A long-time Democratic Party campaign consultant, he was a partn ...

, Former

Senior Advisor to the President of the United States Senior Advisor to the President is a title used by high-ranking political advisors to the president of the United States. White House senior advisors are senior members of the White House Office. The title has been formally used since 1993. Res ...

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

, announced in an email that the White House is releasing "

We the People The Preamble to the United States Constitution, beginning with the words We the People, is a brief introductory statement of the Constitution's fundamental purposes and guiding principles. Courts have referred to it as reliable evidence o ...

". An online platform for the public to create petitions to the US Government. The launch of the petitioning platform was announced by Katelyn Sabochik September 22, 2011 in a White House blog post. The platform was temporarily shut down by the

Trump administration Donald Trump's tenure as the 45th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican from New York City, took office following his Electoral College victory ...

as it would be replaced with a "new platform

hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...

would save taxpayers more than $1m a year" as announced on December 19, 2017.

Platform

In July 2001, the

started switching their web servers to an operating system based on

Red Hat Linux Red Hat Linux was a widely used commercial open-source Linux distribution created by Red Hat until its discontinuation in 2004. Early releases of Red Hat Linux were called Red Hat Commercial Linux. Red Hat published the first non-beta rele ...

and using the Apache HTTP Server. The installation was completed in February 2009. In October 2009, the White House web servers adopted Drupal, a free and open-source content management system, which runs on

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a commercial open-source Linux distribution developed by Red Hat for the commercial market. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is released in server versions for x86-64, Power ISA, ARM64, and IBM Z and a desktop ...

. In December 2017, the

launched a redesigned website which it claims will save taxpayers "as much $3 million annually".

Notes

A Spanish version of whitehouse.gov is currently available under the

Biden Administration Joe Biden's tenure as the 46th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 2021. Biden, a Democrat from Delaware who previously served as vice president under Barack Obama, took office following his victory ...

and was also used during the Bush and Obama administrations. During the

Trump Administration Donald Trump's tenure as the 45th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican from New York City, took office following his Electoral College victory ...

, the Spanish version of whitehouse.gov was removed. There is also archived Spanish versions of the website from the Bush and Obama administrations. The Clinton version of the site was archived several times during the administration and this is last archive of the site. Other versions can be found by changing the id in the URL between 1 and 5

References

External links

*
Archived Presidential White House Websites
from the

National Archives and Records Administration The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It ...

*
Archived versions of the site
during the Clinton administration *
Archived versions of the site
during the Bush administration *
Archived versions of the site
during the Obama administration *
Archived versions of the site
during the

{{White House Government services web portals in the United States Internet properties established in 1994 Presidency of the United States Creative Commons-licensed works 1994 establishments in Washington, D.C. Multilingual websites White House __FORCETOC__