Obama names online staff

The White House announced the core of President Barack Obama’s online team today by making several appointments.

As Federal Computer Week previously reported, Macon Phillips is the White House’s director of new media and Katie Stanton is director of citizen participation. Cammie Croft will join the team as deputy new media director and Jesse Lee as director of online programs, according to White House officials.

Phillips served as director of new media for the presidential transition team. He developed Change.gov and oversaw the transition team’s online communications, White House officials said. Before that, he served as deputy director of new media for Obama’s presidential campaign and managed the daily operations of the campaign’s online program.

Croft was the new media rapid response manager for the Obama campaign. She oversaw efforts to integrate new media and communications, including managing the Fight the Smears Web site, according to the White House.

Lee worked in the new media department for the transition team doing online outreach and handled online communications for the Democratic National Committee during election season, White House officials said.

Before her White House appointment, Stanton worked at Google, where she was part of the team responsible for OpenSocial, Google Moderator and various election-related initiatives, officials said.