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Online technology played a large role in President-elect Obama’s campaign, and now it’s helping to disseminate information about the progress of the new administration. Last week the Office of the President-elect launched Change.gov, an online information hub to keep the public informed with news and updates about activities conducted by the President-elect and Vice President-elect during the next two months.

As President-elect Obama focuses on key staff appointments and setting up his transition team, some publications across the country are weighing in on how various aspects of the campaign platform could translate into policies enacted by the new administration. Of particular importance for the social entrepreneur community are President-elect Obama’s interest in scaling national service and creating a Social Entrepreneurship Agency and a Social Investment Fund Network.

In his first post-election op-ed, David Brooks shares his dream of the successful presidency this country needs. Among other things, Brooks states that

“walking into the Obama White House of my dreams will be like walking into the Gates Foundation. The people there will be ostentatiously pragmatic and data-driven. They’ll hunt good ideas like venture capitalists. They’ll have no faith in all-powerful bureaucrats issuing edicts from the center. Instead, they’ll use that language of decentralized networks, bottom-up reform and scalable innovation.”

It’s a dream shared by all of us at America Forward.

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Recent College Grads Forgo Traditional Careers, Money to Start Nonprofits Focused on Outreach in The Washington Post, 10-14-2008.

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An interview by Jim Phills in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall 2008.

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An article by Suzanne Perry in The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 9-15-08.

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An article by Stephen Goldsmith on America Forward's policy ideas for the role of government in the Indianapolis Star, 8-24-08.

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In the news Tuesday, NPR ran the first of three pieces on their All Things Considered program looking at the great benefits that educational entrepreneurs like Don Feinstein and his Academy of Urban School Leadership (AUSL) have brought to the Chicago school system, revitalizing failing schools with new and innovative ideas while working within the existing public school system. NewSchools Venture Fund, an America Forward coalition member working to advise, invest in, and network educational entrepreneurs, helped NPR connect with AUSL and get their story. Check out the show and keep an eye out – there’ll be two more episodes coming along in the next few weeks, as well as a closer look at NewSchools Venture Fund tomorrow as part of our Focus on Impact series!