e-Hail To the Chief

Adds Andrew Rasiej, an adviser to Sunlight and the founder of Personal Democracy Forum, which chronicles the intersection of technology and politics: "Most members of Congress don't know the difference between a server and a waiter. But they're getting better. They have young staffers who live in the YouTube world. They've seen how Obama used the Web. They're waking up to this new reality."

For Rasiej, Obama can serve as a model in how to use technology for governing. A lot is riding on exactly what kind of power Obama's chief technology officer -- a newly created position -- will have. And where that position fits within the Obama administration. Julius Genachowski, a friend of Obama's since law school and the campaign's chief technology officer, is considered the front-runner for the job.

"For example, if that person is in the White House at a Cabinet level, expect more transparency, a more Web 2.0 WhiteHouse.gov. But if they put that person in the OMB" -- the Office of Management and Budget -- "it will be like putting the chief locomotive engineer in 1860 at a desk at the horse trading association," Rasiej says. "Every issue group is looking for a czar -- an energy czar, a drug czar -- but this is different because technology is not a slice of the pie, it's the pan."

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A month after winning the White House, David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, sent a message to Obama's campaign e-mail list of 13 million.

"Now it's time to start preparing and working for change in our communities," the e-mail read, urging supporters to host house meetings on Dec. 13 and 14. The purpose, Plouffe instructed, was twofold: to reflect on what was accomplished during the campaign, and to plan for the future. Hosts were sent guidelines and DVDs to facilitate the meetings. They also were asked to report back to Plouffe.

About 4,200 house meetings were organized in 2,000 cities and towns. Within 150 miles of Washington, more than 330 were listed, many of them with specific agendas. A meeting at a theater in Oxon Hill focused on getting teenage mothers off drugs and alcohol. A meeting at a home in McLean dealt with Obama's policy toward India.

And a meeting at a community center near Catholic University in Northeast Washington concentrated on D.C.'s lack of voting representation on the Hill. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's representative in Congress, cannot vote on the House floor.

On this particular Saturday afternoon, one of the 19 people seated at a long, rectangular wooden table is Ernest E. Johnson, the community activist who's anxious about what happens next to Obama's online network. Though he doesn't work for the campaign, his e-mails are signed, "Ernest E. Johnson, Obama for America." He was "born, buttered and bred" in the city, as he likes to say, and the two issues he cares about most are health care reform and D.C.'s voting rights.

"Health care must be affordable to all," says Johnson, shifting in his seat. "Residents in the nation's capital must have a vote."

The meeting's host, Ron Magnus, a 46-year-old lawyer, nods. He stands in the front of the room, jotting notes on a poster with a red marker, listing the issues that matter to everyone in the room.

Marisa Lengor, a 26-year-old grad student at George Mason University, raises her hand.

"How about the state of D.C. public schools?" she asks. "Shouldn't that be near the top of list, too?"

The list keeps getting longer. Voting rights. Health care. Clean energy. Public schools. Homelessness.

"This is what happens when people are fired up," Johnson says later, as he rushes out the door. This is the first of four house meetings he plans to attend today. "No stopping it now."

As it happens, Johnson has organized a health care forum at his church, Mount Rona Missionary Baptist Church in Columbia Heights, on the Saturday before Obama's inauguration. He's started handing out fliers and posted a notice of the meeting online.