Comments on: Bill Versioning: Unintended consequences of data openness http://www.theopenhouseproject.com/2007/02/14/bill-versioning-unintended-consequences-of-data-openness/ Recommendations, Resources, and Reform Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:53:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Joshua Tauberer http://www.theopenhouseproject.com/2007/02/14/bill-versioning-unintended-consequences-of-data-openness/comment-page-1/#comment-20 Joshua Tauberer Sat, 17 Feb 2007 22:38:36 +0000 http://www.theopenhouseproject.com/2007/02/14/bill-versioning-unintended-consequences-of-data-openness/#comment-20 I would be very interested to hear about any headway they make on that. It would certainly be a very useful tool. I would be very interested to hear about any headway they make on that. It would certainly be a very useful tool.

]]> By: lewisb http://www.theopenhouseproject.com/2007/02/14/bill-versioning-unintended-consequences-of-data-openness/comment-page-1/#comment-17 lewisb Thu, 15 Feb 2007 13:52:25 +0000 http://www.theopenhouseproject.com/2007/02/14/bill-versioning-unintended-consequences-of-data-openness/#comment-17 I noticed GovTrack a while back and have been pleased with the format. The students in one of my classes are working on taking this idea one step further. Instead of showing the changes to a bill itself, they are building a system for showing the changes to the US Code that are *caused* by a bill. The reasoning is very similar to what you describe above -- the "inserts" and "strikes" language makes it very difficult to understand what the changes to the law will be, since the bill text by itself is not presented in context with the rest of the law. I noticed GovTrack a while back and have been pleased with the format.

The students in one of my classes are working on taking this idea one step further. Instead of showing the changes to a bill itself, they are building a system for showing the changes to the US Code that are *caused* by a bill. The reasoning is very similar to what you describe above — the “inserts” and “strikes” language makes it very difficult to understand what the changes to the law will be, since the bill text by itself is not presented in context with the rest of the law.

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