Is the White House Sending Spam?

In the "Cultural Aspects of Email" department today, Erika Morphy over at E-Commerce Times writes on the topic of whether certain emails coming from the White House, regarding healthcare reform, qualify as spam or not. I had submitted some commentary to Erika on this topic and thought that the resulting article would be of interest to readers of this blog (and not just because I'm quoted).

You can read the full article here:

E-Commerce Times: Critics Smell Spam in White House Healthcare Email Effort

"The White House has emailed thousands of messages to Americans detailing its stance on the contentious issue of healthcare reform, but some recipients say the messages were unsolicited. Critics are questioning whether the White House used address-gathering tactics similar to those employed by spammers."

As governments at all levels make more use of electronic communications, I think we'll be seeing more discussion of these types of issues.