According to reports, the Change.gov website went live on Thursday, November 6th. It is run by the Obama-Biden Transition Project, a 501c(4) organization. The website says it is of the "Office of the President Elect," and at the top lists the days counting down to President-Elect Obama's inauguration, and shows his speech at Grant Park.
Website Sections:
Newsroom/Blog
The news room/blog lists events and press releases from the Obama-Biden Transition Project, or the "Office of the President Elect." There are separate buttons for the newsroom and the blog, the newsroom shows a truncated version of the blog entries, and offers a "press section," offering a transition press room, a place for "up-to-the-minute updates and information about all aspects of the transition including press releases and announcements," and press resources: "Public schedules, briefing schedules and documents, press contacts, and other media resources." Neither are currently live links.
Learn
The learn section leads to a basic page about the Obama administration. The section further breaks down into pages to learn about President-Elect, Vice President-Elect, "the Transition" and "the Administration."
The learn pages about the President and Vice President Elect gives biographical details, while the transition talks about the project of transitioning into power, saying the site will help preserve transparency in the process, and keep the electorate informed; also listing the transition team, headed by John Podesta.
The administration page lists the positions to be headed within the new cabinet, as well as those within the White House Office itself.
Agenda
The Agenda page only links to one page, stating:
President-Elect Obama and Vice President-Elect Biden have developed innovative approaches to challenge the status quo in Washington and to bring about the kind of change America needs.
The Obama Administration has a comprehensive and detailed agenda to carry out its policies. The principal priorities of the Obama Administration include: a plan to revive the economy, to fix our health care, education, and social security systems, to define a clear path to energy independence, to end the war in Iraq responsibly and finish our mission in Afghanistan, and to work with our allies to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, among many other domestic and foreign policy objectives.
However, when the site first launched, the agenda linked to 11 different pages, from pages on civil rights and additional issues. These pages took the same 11 issues from the campaign website, BarackObama.com and placed them on the Change.gov website, with individual pages for each issues: Civil Rights, Defense, Disabilities, Economy, Education, Ethics, Faith, Family, Fiscal, Foreign Policy, Healthcare, Homeland Security, Immigration, Iraq, Poverty, Rural, Service, Seniors & Social Security, Taxes, Technology, Urban Policy, Veterans, Women, and Additional Issues.
American Moment
The American moment page asks for feedback, to "share your story" of the election, and the "share your vision" of things that need to be done and changed.
America Serves
The America Serves page resembles the Service page that used to be up under the Agenda section, and is also listed under the Issues section of the BarackObama.com campaign website.
On the page, President-Elect Obama lays out his plan to expand the Peace Corps, Americorps, and create "a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps."
Originally, the service page went on to read:
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. (emphasis added)
This part of the website received the most immediate attention on blogs and in the media. Friday, November 7th, in the evening, the website was changed. The new wording read:
Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by setting a goal that all middle school and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year and by developing a plan so that all college students who conduct 100 hours of community service receive a universal and fully refundable tax credit ensuring that the first $4,000 of their college education is completely free. (emphasis added)
