I’ll be collecting highlights of the discussion on our google group and posting them here. Several threads are thriving already, and we’re looking to deepen the conversation with informed commentary and suggestions.

In the last week or so…

Matt Stoller announced the addition of Robert Bluey of the Heritage Foundation as fellow coordinator of the Open House Project. I’m looking forward to working with him; you can see his impressive bio here.

Dan Newman offered some specific open-government suggestions… He brought up the USPS’s potential role in helping groups get zip codes for addresses, and suggested that the House Website should create an API allowing websites to find Representatives based on zip codes. He also suggested that THOMAS publish bills in XML, that the FEC update the format for campaign filings, and that campaign contribution reports should be required to be submitted electronically. These suggestions all reflect a theme running throughout our conversations: political information’s format, and the way that it is made available, determines how it can be used. APIs and XML both hold enormous potential in transforming our awareness of Congress.

We’re also trying to nail down what aspects of the committee system could be easily reformed to permit better constituent access. We’re discussing transcripts, reports, votes, earmarks, hearing and markup schedules, listing legislation, disclosing staff info, subcommittee details, and the chairman’s mark. I’m looking for a solid list of the “low-hanging fruit.” Greg Elin brought up geocodes and timestamps in relation to committee transcripts, and between him, Aphid Stern, and Josh Tauberer, we already have a good start on diagramming the current state of transcription and suggesting where we’d like it to go.

We also got a tour through some technical aspects of the House’s video capabilities, following Aphid’s specific descriptions of the cameras, control rooms, access hubs, and press galleries. I’d like to see raw legislative video free of copyright restrictions available online for both floor and committee proceedings, which would permit exciting projects like MetaVid to use text and perhaps ultimately merge with tools that grant access to Congressional databases, resulting in House and Senate floor speeches being annotated live with categorized campaign contributions, district data, vote history, who knows.

Like other aspects of Congress, reforming legislative video availability starts with equalizing access, granting accreditation to others than the traditional media, perhaps bypassing the press galleries. Distribution and presentation are secondary to equal access.

Membership in the Open House Project google group is growing steadily, and I intend to do this frequently, to give a glimpse into the conversations we’re having to those who can’t read all of that email, and to encourage contributions. Feel free to jump in with your ideas; you can even contribute anonymously with the link on the right.