Wired Up, Ready to Go
In keeping with transparency from the new presidential administration, President-Elect Barack Obama has a hold on the Internet as he did throughout his entire campaign. Now, Americans can go to Change.gov to browse through issues, changes in the new administration, public schedules, briefing schedules and documents, press contacts, and other media resources. You even can apply for a job.
But, the call is for volunteerism in a way that may already be familiar to Obama/Biden supporters (34.61% in Appomattox County) and that may become addicting to anyone who wants to help others. According to the Obama transition site:
“The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in under-served schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year. Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start.”
As the site grows, you can expect to see room for volunteer efforts at local levels that will be coordinated at state and national levels.
But, back to the local level, many politicians and candidates already have reached out to constituents through the Internet. Not surprisingly, most of these politicians are Democrats who have followed Obama’s lead. For instance, you can contact Mark Warner (60.33% of the Appomattox vote) and Tom Perriello (36.45% of the Appomattox vote) through Twitter (where you also can follow Appomattox News among other media outlets).
Barack Obama also will encourage more Senate and House members to build up their Twitter accounts, to maintain blogs, and to develop podcasts (video or ‘radio’ announcements on the Internet) to reach their constituents. And, you can expect more information other than where politicians plan to be next week. They may begin to post information about which bills they’re working on, which committees they serve on, and how they plan to vote on some issues. They may even ask you, through polls or emails, how you feel about any given issue.
If you have a computer, and if you’re lucky enough to have broadband or cable access, you won’t have a problem getting around. But, phone dial-up might create issues, as you may not be able to view videos or maintain a connection with some of these sites. However, local libraries can help out there. There are ten public access computers at Jamerson and four at Pamplin, and they all have jetbroadband (high speed cable). And, Appomattox News will stay on top of local issues and local political news to make sure you have the information you need so you can use these public computers to learn more.
This is just the beginning of a new government, one that is in touch with its constituency and one that expects to hear from its voters. If this type of participation bewilders you, don’t feel alone…many people don’t know how to use these tools. But, Appomattox News may hold a short seminar over the winter to help local residents learn how to use them so no one feels left out.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to write to me, Linda Goin, at “publisher @ appomattoxnews.com” (remove spaces and quotes).
Links to Americorps and the Peace Corps are listed below, so you can become familiar with these organizations:
AmeriCorps – http://www.americorps.org/
Peace Corps – http://www.peacecorps.gov/
UPDATE: New Twitter accounts discovered (created this afternoon): Rahm Emanuel (http://twitter.com/RahmEmanuel) and Al Gore (http://twitter.com/al_gore). I have a feeling we’ll be running a “Twitter” article shortly with many contacts that Appomattox residents can follow…
