Ok, the election is over. Now what?

Well, I would hope that all those millions of people who participated in getting Obama elected (and even those who worked for McCain) would now go on to get involved in the process of governing this country.

As with the campaign to elect the president, Congress, and thousands of local officials, participation in a democracy can take many different forms and certainly not everyone can allocate huge amounts of time.

However, everyone should make themselves aware of what the new administration is planning and tell the president and their representatives exactly what they think about those plans.

One of the things I’m hopeful about is that they will be far more transparent and open to ideas that come from outside the inner circle.

A step in the right direction is the Obama transition team’s Change.gov web site, where they not only have posted the agenda on which the candidate ran but also invite visitors to offer their ideas.

While I should probably have a wider range of interests, I’m paying particular attention to the plans and goals in the areas of education, science, and technology.

So far, I rather like their philosophy and proposals for science and technology.

Not so much for education, which indicates that the new president will likely continue to offer programs that reinforce the traditional model of US education.

Unfortunately including “Reform No Child Left Behind”.

With an optimism (possibly naive) that they will actually be read and considered, I’ll be shoveling some of my thoughts on the subject through that Submit Your Ideas button.

I can only hope that many more people will do the same. And continue to do so.