Lifting the veil
The Sunlight Foundation has launched OpenCongress.org, a website that "brings together official government data with news and blog coverage to give you the real story behind each bill."
Based on a quick click-through, this looks great. Here's the problem: a lot of information about what Congress is up to is available to the public, but only if you know what you're looking for. For example, in theory, anyone can track legislation and read records of congressional proceedings using the Library of Congress's Thomas website, House and Senate committee websites, and so forth. Doesn't mean your grandmother would be able to do it on the first try, though. And anyone could search Google News for coverage of issues, legislation, and politicos they are interested in. If they know what they're searching for.
It remains to be seen how well OpenCongress will do at weaving together the information from these different sources in a clear, accurate, and unbiased way, but for now, I say--cool idea.
Based on a quick click-through, this looks great. Here's the problem: a lot of information about what Congress is up to is available to the public, but only if you know what you're looking for. For example, in theory, anyone can track legislation and read records of congressional proceedings using the Library of Congress's Thomas website, House and Senate committee websites, and so forth. Doesn't mean your grandmother would be able to do it on the first try, though. And anyone could search Google News for coverage of issues, legislation, and politicos they are interested in. If they know what they're searching for.
It remains to be seen how well OpenCongress will do at weaving together the information from these different sources in a clear, accurate, and unbiased way, but for now, I say--cool idea.
posted by Waage on Monday, March 12, 2007
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