Let Our Congress Tweet
July 10, 2008 8:46 AM   Subscribe

It is really interesting that Representatives John Culberson and Tim Ryan have started to really use Twitter and post from the House floor. While the Franking Commission reconsiders rules on Internet Use, the Sunlight Foundation wants to make sure they Let Our Congress Tweet.
posted by cjoh (12 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
johnculberson AAAAaA about 19 hours ago from TwitterBerry
johnculberson AaaAA about 19 hours ago from TwitterBerry
Ah.
posted by enn at 8:54 AM on July 10, 2008


How is Yet Another One Way Communication Medium "sunlight"? Sunlight is when I can see what they are doing, even when they don't want me to. It's not a press release.
posted by DU at 9:02 AM on July 10, 2008 [2 favorites]


Is there something against sunlightfoundation tags to these posts? Or is would that conflict with the metafilter's-ownnessability potential they possibly possess? I like the direction this foundation is headed in.
posted by cashman at 9:07 AM on July 10, 2008


Give us his Blackberry's e-mail address so we can stop the Constitutional Crime of the Week... that might be progress.
posted by rokusan at 9:12 AM on July 10, 2008


(I just want to see a congressman with the floor pause while his Blackberry buzzes, glance and the screen, and mutter "hm now what's a cuntwaffle?" before continuing his explanation of why we don't need forests.)
posted by rokusan at 9:14 AM on July 10, 2008 [5 favorites]


How is Yet Another One Way Communication Medium "sunlight"? Sunlight is when I can see what they are doing, even when they don't want me to. It's not a press release.

You know, that's true, but I think that concerns about transparency in this context go deeper than that. If restrictions on social networks are enforced, and franking regulations are applied more strictly to internet communications (especially social networks), this will impact the kinds and amounts of information that we get from our representatives. Treating a twitter post like a franked mailing is ridiculous and, frankly, pretty dangerous to the idea of open communication. Sure, twitter pings are one-way. What about a facebook page that a representative sets up to facilitate communication with younger constituents? Is that a mailing to constituents (franked, as they claim, though I'm pretty sure that "franking" is an inappropriate, misleading, and confusing term here), or is it more akin to a slow-moving informal interview or press conference? Questions like these will not be resolved with an outright ban on social network use by politicians, and do need to be addressed.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 10:15 AM on July 10, 2008


You have been poked by a congressman.
posted by blue_beetle at 10:27 AM on July 10, 2008 [1 favorite]


@blue_beetle: I thought Mark Foley had retired. ;p

@OverlappingElvis: These issues very plainly do need to be clarified. It's arguable though that the rules do not currently make tweeting or video posting illegal as is claimed by the two posts from the Sunlight Foundation so far.
posted by purp at 10:40 AM on July 10, 2008


These seem as inane as anyone's Twitters. Culberson's are all about something called Qik? which seems to be another website.

I can see how Twitter works well for folks like Jessamyn, who are always travelling and might want/need to quickly update friends and family where they are and that they've arrived safe, but I don't really think it's a communication medium we should be embracing on a wider scale. We have enough problems with soundbyte culture as it is.
posted by Eideteker at 11:00 AM on July 10, 2008


What do they do when Twitter's down? Or, maybe, how many times a day do they run to their computers to catch Twitter when it's up?
posted by nospecialfx at 11:32 AM on July 10, 2008




Taking a dump on the Constitution, brb.
posted by anthill at 5:21 PM on July 10, 2008 [1 favorite]


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