Enlarge By AJ Mast for USA TODAY Pamela Warren, left, and Betsy Ware volunteer to set up a website for the Obama group in Bloomington, Ind. BARACK OBAMA'S HISTORIC RUN BARACK OBAMA'S HISTORIC RUN USA TODAY's sights and sounds gallery puts together images and audio marking the Democrat's historic run to the White House. Now what? That's the question for millions of volunteers who worked to elect Barack Obama — and for the organization that mobilized them. Through innovative use of online social networks, the Obama campaign ended up with more than 2 million registered users on its MyBarackObama.com website. That database, plus the millions more e-mail addresses the campaign collected through events and fundraising, could be a valuable resource for the Obama administration. The Obama transition team and the remaining campaign organization are keeping in touch with volunteers online, soliciting their opinions about their campaign experiences, asking volunteers to share war stories, and inviting them to write about their "vision" for the country. The campaign and transition websites this week asked visitors to click on a link to donate to victims of California wildfires — resulting in more than 100,000 hits. Campaign manager David Plouffe this week sent an e-mail survey to those registered with the campaign website, asking how people want to remain involved and what issues they care about. Keeping Obama supporters engaged and active through the Obama transition website change.gov is "our first priority," transition spokesperson Jen Psaki says. In both groups, teams are developing new online efforts to keep Obama supporters active. Legal firewalls between government and political campaigns mean the volunteer database can't be handed over wholesale to the Obama White House. "It's only been two weeks since the election and this is something no one's ever done before. So I think what we're seeing is the natural evolution of sorting that out," says Micah Sifry, founder of Personal Democracy Forum, a website about technology and politics. The network could be a powerful tool, says Dana Fisher, a Columbia University sociologist who studies grass-roots politics. "If they need people to go and call their representatives, this is a wonderful resource for this administration. But it depends on how much people stay involved." BEHIND THE RESULTS: Time lapse view of U.S. counties from Nov. 4 During the campaign, Obama supporters used the site they call "MyBo" to find each other, organize canvassing and fundraisers, blog, chat and argue. Now, they're using it to celebrate and plan what they want to do next: • In Georgia, Obama volunteers are making phone calls for Democratic Senate candidate Jim Martin, who is in a Dec. 2 runoff against Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss. • In Indiana, a group of Obama volunteers met Wednesday to plan a food-pantry drive. "It's easy to see that this (economic downturn) is going to be a very serious long-term problem," says Pam Warren, who organized the meeting in Bloomington, Ind. "Until we get marching orders from President-elect Obama — I love saying that — we figured we have already been taught to take care of ourselves." • In northern Virginia, 80 volunteers have signed up for a pizza party and organizing meeting on Saturday. "There's no doubt that there's a lot of potential for doing more down the road," organizer Todd Smyth says. If Obama needs support for an issue, "he'll turn back to the grass-roots group and get them to help push it through. I think people would be excited at the drop of a hat to get involved again." • In Pennsylvania, local Democrats are wooing Obama volunteers to get involved in regular party politics. In Bucks County, where the local MyBarackObama Web page has nearly 700 members, county Democrats are holding a meeting Saturday. "We want to harness as many of those people as possible," says Neil Samuels, deputy county chairman. "A local township race is not going to give them the same high. But it can make a difference in people's lives." • In Colorado, Douglas County Democrats are strategizing to hang on to about 500 local Obama campaigners. "I thought I would never have to make another phone call after the election, but I have literally been on the phone calling several hundred people" to thank them and invite them to Democratic meetings, says party captain Sue Zloth. The problem for local political parties is that Obama appealed explicitly to people turned off by traditional politics. "These are not party politicos," says Robert Nemanich, an Obama volunteer in Colorado Springs, who organized a meeting Tuesday to discuss future activism. "That's why they liked Obama. I'm trying to light the match saying, you don't have to go in to just that route. We can have our own route here." Obama volunteers want to remain active in part just to stay in touch with friends made during the long campaign. "We had a volunteer headquarters that we all pretty much lived in," says Liz Lempert, who co-chaired an Obama group in Princeton, N.J., that will meet next week. "Moving out of that office is really hard. People just want to keep those ties together." Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. 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