The Hill published an Op-Ed by David All and myself today arguing for the House to change the way it governs, and restricts, member Web site content. Here’s a little snippet:
Technology and politics are rapidly intertwining in the new millennium as presidential candidates adopt sophisticated online operations to raise money, get out the vote and […]

Mitch Kapor has a few comments on politics and network architecture that you may find of interest.
Politics is Architecture
When it comes to building a new movement, the converse proposition, “politics is architecture” holds true as well. The architecture (structure and design) of political processes, not their content, is determinative of what can be accomplished. […]

The House voted to expand a national database of personal information that gun sellers can use to screen their buyers (as reported by the NYTimes). If the House can fill a database of information about citizens, I think citizens deserve an updated database about House members.

Josh recently put up a post that details some of his reservations about extending video coverage to committee hearings, as inspired by some commentary from Glenn Beck.
Their argument goes like this: putting video further into the legislative process will inject an undue amount of politics into a process that should be legislative. […]

Glenn Beck, the conservative-leaning talking head on CNN Headline Prime, made an interesting point while appearing as a guest on his own show last night about video taping nomination confirmations:
[W]e live in a world now where we will send people off to fight and die. We will send people off to kill in our name. […]

We aren’t the only ones after opening up CRS reports. As our report mentions, Rep. Christopher Shays [R-CT] has been a supporter of this for a long while. Two weeks ago he introduced H.R. 2545, the latest in a long line of bills he has introduced to make CRS reports directly available to the public. […]

OpenCongress.org yesterday announced the release of a new set of web tools that have me pretty excited about spreading targeted legislative information online.
One of the more exciting tools is the syndication panel, which displays user-defined sets of OpenCongress information on other websites. For example:

As it now stands, we’re given the option to display […]

Lawmakers renewed funding for the Office of Technology Assessment yesterday at a markup for the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill. We don’t have full details yet but the subcommittee approved $2.5 million to reestablish the OTA, which will provide nonpartisan technological and scientific research to members of Congress and the general public. Congress has finally reversed […]

We’ve sent an endorsement of a renewed Office of Technology Assessment to both Chairwoman Wasserman Schultz and to Ranking Member Wamp.
Here’s our official endorsement:

Here’s a quick run-down of H.R. 2316: Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 [text], which the House passed May 24 with an overwhelming majority. It goes to the Senate next.
Let’s start with the great news: A lobbying disclosure database would be mandated:
Sec 208. “[The Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the […]