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To access links, see Steven Clift's blog: http://dowire.org/notes/?p=308 Post: An Open House? Your advice to the U.S. Congress on using the Internet to build trust and transparency In a major victory speech likely next Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, said the new majority will build the "most honest, most open, and most ethical Congress in history." One of the most important building blocks will be how the institution of the House uses the Internet to provide not just deep access to the information generated by the process or required by ethics filings, but also how the processes themselves are adapted or complemented with technologically enabled options like online committee hearings, systems that allow Members of Congress and committees to "listen" to people not just process e-mail and traditional constituent communication, and personalized e-mail/RSS/SMS notification systems. While projects like GovTrack.US, Congresspedia, OpenCRS, and Open Congress (beta) are active from the outside, what do you think Congress should do online from the inside? The folks with ReadtheBill.Org seem to get it - require Congress to post a bill online for 72 hours before taking a vote. Let's add more concrete ideas to the list now. (For ongoing practical discussion, join our active Online Consultations, Dialogues, and E-Participation online community of practice.) The other year, staff from across the House attended a presentation I gave about international parliamentary online trends. It included someone from then Minority Leader Pelosi's office. I'll be sure to forward your public comments on the blog - http:///dowire.org/blog - to those leaders. Now is your chance to list your very specific ideas on how we build a better and more open Congress. The reality of institutional change means that if initiatives are not launched and politically agreed to by leadership within the first three months of a power shift, it won't happen (most Newt Gingrich's openness plans involving the Internet/technology quietly fell to the wayside in the late 1990's.) Steven Clift http://dowire.org http://e-democracy.org And host of the 40+ country Parliaments Online Forum (an e-list for parliamentary online staff) P.S. I want to challenge folks involved with the innovative UK-based projects like TheyWorkForYou.com (see mySociety) and those from other countries to toss in their two cents. With most of the "Governance 2.0" experimentation in this space, like the eRepresenative project, based on EU-funding (example), the U.S. has some serious catching up to do. Have a listen to this teleconference from the European Parliaments Research Initiative on "Visions of Future Political Interaction: An online hearing with Europe's National Parliamentarians" - it raises questions not on the radar in the U.S. - although Zephyr Teachout with the Sunlight Foundation (formerly with the Dean's Internet campaign) seems to have made the jump from e-campaigning and e-advocacy to better governance and representation in her blog post today. *** Democracies Online Newswire - http://DoWire.Org *** To comment/for links: http://dowire.org/notes/?p=308 To network: http://groups.dowire.org Submit posts: http://dowire.org/submit Member profile for Steven: http://groups.dowire.org/main/contacts/stevenclift ----------------------------------------- Group home for Newswire - Steven Clift's blog posts by e-mail: http://groups.dowire.org/main/groups/newswire Replies go to members of Newswire - Steven Clift's blog posts by e-mail with all posts on this topic here: http://groups.dowire.org/topic/142568 For digest version or to leave Newswire - Steven Clift's blog posts by e-mail, email [email protected] with "digest on" or "unsubscribe" in the *subject*. Newswire - Steven Clift's blog posts by e-mail is hosted by Democracies Online - http://dowire.org.
