Obama website change.gov goes online

The official website of US President-elect Barack Obama for his transition to the White House, www.change.gov went online on Thursday inviting users to offer their ideas for the future of the country.

Under the headline of "Open Government," the website asks readers to "Share Your Vision" via email.

"The story of the campaign and this historic moment has been your story," the website states. "Share your story and your ideas, and be part of bringing positive lasting change to this country."

The website's homepage notes that it's "75 days until inauguration," when Obama is to be sworn in as president on January 20, 2009.

It also features a quote from Obama: "Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today."

A blog posting includes a link to a YouTube video of Obama's victory speech in Chicago on Tuesday.

Users can also apply for jobs via the website or read about the president-elect's agenda and priorities for his administration.

The site is thus far a little sparse on details. No mention of Rahm Emanuel, who today accepted the position of Obama's chief of staff, or the tech leaders who were named to his transition team - Julius Genachowski, former IAC/InterActiveCorp executive and chief counsel to for FCC chairman Reed Hundt, and Google.org's Sonal Shah.

The site does include a form that asks visitors to "tell us your ideas and help us solve the biggest challenges facing our country." Participants will be required to provide their e-mail address, first and last names, and ZIP code.

Obama made strides during his campaign utilizing the Internet and has said he would like to continue that during his administration.

In an October interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, Obama called for "using technology in intelligent ways."

"One of the things I'm excited about is to transfer what we've learned from this campaign in using technology into government," he said. "There are examples of that all throughout our government that can remove bureaucracy, eliminate red tape, [and] make the whole process more customer-friendly. They do it in the private sector all the time."