Change.gov Launched to Track White House Transition
Friday, November 7, 2008
President Elect Barack Obama has launched a new Web site to outline the details of the transition to his new administration in January. The site echoes the theme from Obama's campaign, "change," which is evident in the domain name of the site as well as some of the site's content.
The immediate launch of the site after Obama's election is indicative of his utilization of technology as a politician. His campaign was often cited as one that made habitual use of the Internet, and Obama has also indicated he will promote technology as president, such as stating he intends to deliver broadband Internet access to everyone in the country. Tech companies in Silicon Valley took note of his intentions in the campaign, giving five times as much in contributions to Obama as they did to McCain.
Some of the key features and content on the site include:
- Press releases/blog – content for these sections is sparse at the time of this writing, but this is not surprising since the election has just taken place and the site just launched. The blog page does feature a video of Obama's victory speech which has been spreading at a fervent pace across the Internet. New articles and blog entries will continue to be posted in the future.
- Agenda/bios – bios of both Obama and running mate Joe Biden are on the site as well as a list of agenda items/positions on issues of the new administration. Items on the list include things like disabilities, taxes, Iraq, foreign policy, and poverty.
- Jobs – site visitors can apply for non-career positions with the new administration via an online form. The form states that the information collected is an initial submission and that the user will receive an email within a few days after the submission with a link to a more complete application. Users interested in career federal employment are referred to OPM's USAJobs site.
- Share your story – one of the more unique sections of the site is the Share your Story/Share your Vision section where users can fill out a short form to share what the Obama campaign has meant to them (Share your Story) and what actions users believe President Elect Obama should take to lead the country during his administration (Share your Vision). Both forms offer an option to upload a photo or video with the submission, which presumably would be a photo of the person making the submission or a video of the user explaining his/her views. Nothing on these sections states what is done with the information that is collected, but one can presume that the stories users submit will be posted to the site at some point in the future.
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