While working on The Open House Project with John and all of you who are a part of the Google Group I was reading the book “On Capitol Hill� by Julian Zelizer. Within the first few pages I was struck by a quote that succinctly described what we were doing. “The process in any given congressional era is more than a technical backdrop to the real political action. Historical periods in Congress revolve around sea changes in the legislative process. … Therefore, each congressional era gains its character from the formal and informal rules of the game by which all participants operate.� Zelizer then goes on to compare Congress to the automobile. The internal machinery of the vehicle determines whether you will have a smooth ride, how far the car can go, and the power of the car. The “formal and informal rules� are Congresses internal machinery and we, the Open House Project, are the mechanics looking under the hood.

This is very much the same as Mitch Kapor’s blog post “Politics as Architecture,� posted earlier this week by James Jacobs. The political process requires a foundation in rules, norms, and societal trends to create change and pass laws. These rules, norms, and trends all affect the political process and the legislative process. The Open House Project intends to create new rules, new norms, and put Congress in line with the societal trends, empowered by the Internet, towards openness, online networks, and user-controlled information. These changes will ultimately alter the political process in ways that we cannot yet predict. It’s always hard to predict how a building will be affected if you change the foundation without tearing it down.

What we do know is that the contemporary closed system of governance in Congress is not working and is coming to an end. What replaces this era is uncertain although it will surely be ruled by a new kind of relationship between citizen and government, constituent and representative, and non-elites and elites. Whether it is a form of direct democracy of the likes imagined in Liza Sabater’s “Cluetrain Manifesto for a People-Powered Politics� or the government of citizen-legislators envisioned by Mark Tapscott is yet to be seen. But what is clear is that the Open House Project, and the changes we seek in Congress, will help to change the balance of power between citizens and their government by altering the flow of political and legislative information and knowledge.

Ultimately, the opening of Congress online will affect the way in which it operates, the kind of laws passed, and the types of people elected to serve. The recommendations of the Open House Project will not simply change the way information is presented online, they will alter the foundation of Congress, thus affecting the entire architecture of the institution. Just as with political parties and issues of importance, fundamental change will only come from the bottom up.