Comments on: Congress 2.0

Congress 2.0

geos — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 08:30:45 -0800

Opencongress.org is a website for keeping track of the U.S. Congress. (previously) But, now it also a social network. So, sign-up and see what your favourite Senator has been doing, track bills and, follow important issues. Then, share that information with your friends or write about it on your blog.

By: cdmwebs

cdmwebs — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 08:40:00 -0800

LOVE this! OpenCongress is great stuff.

By: DU

DU — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 08:46:19 -0800

Open government is the only solution. Regardless of your ideology¹ you need to know what the government is doing for/to/in spite of you. ¹Unless your ideology is "let corporations make all the decisions," which is a legitimate and widespread, if not wise, viewpoint.

By: geos

geos — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 08:48:47 -0800

I think one of the more genuinely hopeful elements of the Obama candidacy is his support of transparency in government. It seems like the information technology can finally keep up with the size and scope of the federal government and it is crucial if we want to live in a democracy in more than name, if citizens are informed as to what their government actually does.

By: Horken Bazooka

Horken Bazooka — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 08:56:29 -0800

Then again, corporations control the information technology that supposedly informs the citizens as to what the government is doing.

By: DU

DU — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 09:02:14 -0800

Corporations also grow and deliver the food that feeds those citizens.

By: thewalrusispaul

thewalrusispaul — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 09:04:18 -0800

This is really good stuff. And it gives legitimate, empirical data on a very important subject: Michele Bachmann is a do-nothing nut job.

By: ZenMasterThis

ZenMasterThis — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 09:24:25 -0800

Unless your ideology is ~~"let corporations make all the decisions,"~~ "let all manner of thieves, bullies and busybodies across the political spectrum -- including corporations -- make all the decisions," which is a legitimate and widespread, if not wise, viewpoint.

By: octothorpe

octothorpe — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 09:28:13 -0800

Wow, this is awesome.

By: mikeo2

mikeo2 — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 09:29:14 -0800

This is one of those websites I've always figured should exist, but never stumbled across... until now.

By: Horken Bazooka

Horken Bazooka — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 09:35:12 -0800

Corporations also grow and deliver the ~~food~~ processed, chemically-infused pap that feeds those citizens. FTFY.

By: ms.jones

ms.jones — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 09:44:03 -0800

thanks for the post!

By: mrzarquon

mrzarquon — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 09:47:56 -0800

So I want this, and the Amazon Kindle (or similar device), given to every member of congress. Think about it, no more "Oh, they faxed me that bill last minute and I voted on it because I didn't want to appear anti Patriotic." To Mr. Senator: "New bill gets in the system, your portable, wireless internet enabled, easy to read and use, tablet downloads the bill to you right away. You can do some searching and grepping and figure out how that information affects your constituents. And we all know you have this ability so you better actually use it, or we start voting your ass out. Your job is to serve your people, not yourself. (I'm looking at you Lieberman)"

By: thebigdeadwaltz

thebigdeadwaltz — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 10:14:26 -0800

I'm so happy to see this in the blue! The guys at Participatory Politics are awesome and have cranked out some really great stuff with their latest release. Even had a real rock star developer on the team!

By: spiderskull

spiderskull — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 11:22:54 -0800

This is a fantastic idea, thanks for the link.

By: 3.2.3

3.2.3 — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:52:37 -0800

I hope this turns out to be as good as it seems. Cuz it seems pretty great.

By: Kadin2048

Kadin2048 — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 20:40:29 -0800

mrzarquon: "So I want this, and the Amazon Kindle (or similar device), given to every member of congress."" I think it'd be easier just to use those fancy electronic yay/nay keypads they already have in the House and Senate, but use them to ask 2 or 3 basic true/false questions about the bill that's being put to a vote or the issue involved. If you can't answer the questions correctly, your vote doesn't count. We could also wire them to Tasers implanted in the seats.

By: jaronson

jaronson — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 20:45:01 -0800

Yes, it's a double. DO NOT DELETE. Here's some more from the Sunlight Foundation...

By: Locative

Locative — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:25:27 -0800

It isn't a true double post -- after all, the social network aspect is new.

By: jaronson

jaronson — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 10:21:53 -0800

I didn't notice that "previously" link there yesterday.

By: liruskainen

liruskainen — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 17:35:52 -0800

This is beyond awesome, no question. I'll be interested in seeing how many users this attracts, though. For how much people love to bitch about the need for governmental transparency, I wonder how many will expend the necessary time and energy to use tools like these that put the workings of the government at citizens' fingertips...