Welcome to Tracking Change

“This victory alone is not the change we seek.  It is only the chance for us to make that change.  And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.  It cannot happen without you.”

                         – President-elect Barack Obama, Speech in Grant Park, November 4, 2008

The swearing-in of the nation’s first African American president heralds a new age of possibilities and responsibilities.  History didn’t just happen.  History was made when African Americans turned out and voted in record numbers.  But now the hard work of turning hope into policy begins.

During a town hall meeting in Fort Meyers, Florida, President Obama said:

I believe in hope, but I also believe in action.

Tracking Change provides a platform to get involved in the policymaking process.  By working together, we can change policies and programs to ensure issues of importance to the African American community are addressed.  The issues include racial disparities in employment, federal contracting opportunities, and access to capital and traditional mortgages.

Tracking Change is about collaborating to ensure African Americans’ interests are represented “in the midst of our greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression.” 

National Journal reports:

New media channels such as Facebook, YouTube, and mobile messaging are becoming an essential protein pack

for successful advocacy.  Gone are the days of promotion or message-spreading through snail mail and a website alone.

The people and organizations that wish to become more influential over their target audience are tapping into the tools

of Web 2.0 to make their voices heard.

In these challenging economic times, we must do more with less.  By harnessing the power of social media and crowdsourcing transparency and accountability, we can more effectively push for change and make our voices heard.

Politics as usual in Washington is over.  In the Obama administration, policymaking will be transparent, collaborative and participatory.   Tracking Change provides timely information about legislation, policies, programs and Federal rules that impact the African American community.  Social media use the “wisdom of crowds” to organize, create, edit, comment and share content.

Tracking Change allows advocacy groups and concerned citizens to track and measure progress in select departments, including Treasury, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, as well as the Federal Communications Commission, Minority Business Development Agency and the Small Business Administration.

Tracking Change shares user-generated ideas and information to bring about the change we seek.  And we will measure change because what gets measured gets done.