While social media is busy transforming the way we lead our lives, it’s also a game changer in the world of politics. It’s never been easier for politicians to communicate directly with their electorate, on the cheap, totally free-from-traditional-media filters.

Barack “you’ll-pry-this-Blackberry-from-my-cold-dead-fingers” Obama’s campaign is Exhibit A: from Facebook– to YouTube– MyBarackObama.com to Twitter, our President owned the social media space (if you haven’t yet, check out this great Fast Company story about Chris Hughes, the campaign’s online “Boy Wonder”).

And Barack Obama still owns the space. When was the last time anyone got excited about a new administration’s White House website… or sparked controversy when it debuted? Yeah, it’s a brave new political world.

The good news for citizens is that this social media revolution is a two way street. Our government is transparent – and accountable – in ways it never was before. There are easy ways to connect with our presidential administration (here’s 10), many elected officials are accessible via Facebook and other avenues, and bowing to constituent pressure many city/state/federal agencies are throwing open their electronic doors in the spirit of transparency. Heck, even California’s Governator is Tweeting.

Not only can we talk more easily to our “reps” (or, hey, their people), we voters can easily arm ourselves with the latest breaking news and heavy-duty research…you know, the stuff that used to be the exclusive domain of politicians/legislators only.

Take Policy Archive: a massive repository for academic and policy research, fueled by submissions from think tanks like The Cato Institute, The Center for American Progress, and The Heritage Foundation. This database, owned by the Center for Governmental Studies, aims to be the largest of its kind. Not only does it puts amazing, top-level research a couple mouse clicks away from students and researchers…it’s a platform available to Joe Six Pack (and, hey, they Twitter (@policyarchive)!).

One of their featured areas? Analysis and policy recommendations for the Obama administration, from across the political spectrum. We can only imagine Obama is reading…you know, on his Blackberry.

(Full disclosure: CGS is a client. But that hasn’t stopped us from being pretty amazed at the sheer volume of PolicyArchive; pretty sure I’m not the only team member getting sucked into the latest/greatest research on current issues.)