Barack Obama had a formidable online presence during his quest for the White House, and he is once again turning to the Internet to communicate with the American public as president-elect. President-elect Barack Obama has launched a Web site to chronicle his transition. Within 24 hours of last week's historic vote, his transition team rolled out http://change.gov, a Web site that promises to be 'your source for the latest news, events and announcements so that you can follow the setting up of the Obama administration.' The site is still a little thin on content, but there's a blog, a newsroom and a countdown to the January 20 inauguration. Visitors can fill out a form to share their stories about what the election meant to them, or they can give their vision of an Obama presidency. They can even apply for a job. The Web site is an extension of Obama's online strategy during the campaign. As a candidate, he had four times as many friends as his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, on MySpace.com. Obama had almost 3 million supporters on Facebook and put together a massive database of e-mail addresses - some 10 million. The president-elect already has said he'll have a five-day online comment period before signing any nonemergency legislation, so Americans can be part of the process. He's also planning to appoint a chief technology officer and has pledged to get true broadband to every community in the country. Obama's embrace of the Internet during his presidential campaign came as Americans increasingly turned to online sources to get election news.
http://www.ejc.net/media_news/obama_launches_web_site_to_reach_public/
