OpenCongress Opens Doors
OpenCongress, a project of the Sunlight Foundation and the Participatory Politics Foundation, is now online as another internet modality for opening up the inner workings of government to those who historically have not had easy access to information on Capitol Hill.
Though still in beta, it offers citizens the opportunity to view voting records, legislation authorship, committee memberships, voting trends, and news and blog mentions about members of Congress. The Executive Director of the Sunlight Foundation, Ellen Miller, calls it "a user-friendly Thomas, on steroids." THOMAS is the Library of Congress's online portal to government information.
Since the advent of the internet — originally a proprietary offshoot of the U.S. Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) — proponents of the free exchange of information have hailed the interconnection of computers as a means for creating a free information society, even a free information world. They have argued that easy access to information enhances democracy by opening government to a broader range of public scrutiny.
To date, OpenCongress has received scant attention from the mainstream media. However, it was featured on NPR's "Future Tense" and has garnered plenty of notice, understandably, in the blogosphere.
As a beta project still in development, it still has some kinks to work out, so users need to be patient with slow or failed searches and fake blog sites rising to the the top of blog searches, for example.
Citizens interested in accessing information about their Minnesota senators and representatives can go to the following links:
Though still in beta, it offers citizens the opportunity to view voting records, legislation authorship, committee memberships, voting trends, and news and blog mentions about members of Congress. The Executive Director of the Sunlight Foundation, Ellen Miller, calls it "a user-friendly Thomas, on steroids." THOMAS is the Library of Congress's online portal to government information.
Since the advent of the internet — originally a proprietary offshoot of the U.S. Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) — proponents of the free exchange of information have hailed the interconnection of computers as a means for creating a free information society, even a free information world. They have argued that easy access to information enhances democracy by opening government to a broader range of public scrutiny.
To date, OpenCongress has received scant attention from the mainstream media. However, it was featured on NPR's "Future Tense" and has garnered plenty of notice, understandably, in the blogosphere.
As a beta project still in development, it still has some kinks to work out, so users need to be patient with slow or failed searches and fake blog sites rising to the the top of blog searches, for example.
Citizens interested in accessing information about their Minnesota senators and representatives can go to the following links:
- Sen. Norm Coleman
- Sen. Amy Klobuchar
- Rep. Tim Walz
- Rep. John Kline
- Rep. Jim Ramstad
- Rep. Betty McCollum
- Rep. Keith Ellison
- Rep. Michele Bachmann
- Rep. Collin Peterson
- Rep. Jim Oberstar
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