The United States’ most tech-savvy president (to be) – a man who used IP communications in new ways to win the White House and reportedly would love to use a BlackBerry (News - Alert) smartphone while in office – is turning to technology again to solicit input from his constituents.

 

Officials with San Francisco’s Salesforce.com – a Web-based customer relationship management and Software-as-a-Service provider – say that President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team is using their technology to set up a sort of testing lab online for citizens’ ideas.

 

The Obama administration’s so-called “Citizen’s Briefing Book” – available here – leverages Salesforce’s “CRM Ideas” to allow Americans to submit an idea about an issue facing the government. Others will be able to vote on those ideas and the most popular ones will be presented directly to Obama and his cabinet following Tuesday’s inauguration, the company says, in a document to be called “The Citizen’s Briefing Book.”

 

Marc Benioff (News - Alert), chairman and chief executive officer of Salesforce.com, said his company is honored to be one of the first solutions selected by the transition team to help the President-elect realize his vision of a “more transparent government.”

 

“With Salesforce CRM Ideas, government can transform a closed conversation into a collaborative dialogue that leverages the wisdom of the crowd,” Benioff said.

 

Here’s what the tool’s main page looks like:

 

 

Users are prompted to create an account – I did so, and didn’t receive an e-mail, at least not yet – and are then re-directed to the tool’s main page, which lists topics:

 

 

Let’s take a closer look at what happens when a user clicks on one of the citizen suggestions, such as this one: “How to use auto industry bailout money correctly.”

 

It appears that users can vote the suggestions up or down – something like definitions getting voted into the Urban Dictionary:

 

 

The Salesforce CRM Ideas tool is the same technology used by enterprises such as Starbucks – here – and Dell (News - Alert) – here – to build a forum for organizations to hear important ideas direct from customers.  

 

Obama officials say that the new Web site is designed to foster greater collaboration with citizens and a more transparent government.

 

There’s a brief video from the Obama transition co-chair Valerie Jarrett (pictured right) that’s embedded on the site.

 

In the video, Jarrett says that citizen participation is key to the success of the new administration

 

“We need your help,” Jarrett says. “We want to hear from you . . . The Citizen’s Briefing Book will come directly from the American people. It is yet another way that we will ensure that this transition is the most open and transparent one in history.”

 

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