I had the pleasure this morning of speaking at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, for a panel on Innovative Advocacy (cohosted by Adfero).
While much of the discussion centered on best practices and ideas around (what seemed to me to be) more traditional advocacy, I tried to add some of my thoughts on what might make [...]

Google has been working with federal agencies to help them ensure that their data are accessible through search engines. Many government databases providing critical information or statistics have existed for much longer than the current standards for public Internet accessibility, so the disconnect between search engines and public databases is understandable.
There is a clear [...]

Broad access to fundamental data leads to compelling analysis. Here’s a TED talk from Hans Rosling, where he gives a tour of the recent history of countries becoming industrialized, using visualizations built on data from the UN.

The history of representative democracy and government is waiting to be similarly told; here’s a broad collection of [...]

(pasted in from the google group, which has been especially active…)
After returning earlier this week from a trip to London to meet with mysociety.org, I’m starting to catch up on everything we’ve been up to.
Whips and Structured Data: For one, I’ve reached out to leadership on both sides to hopefully start a discussion about [...]

(This is written in the style of a letter to the Senate… because hopefully it will turn into just that. Comments on its persuasiveness are welcome.)
Summary: The Senate’s current position on publishing voting records online is analogous to a reference library that has no copy machine. I explain below why the Senate website should publish [...]

One theme running through what we’re doing here, in my mind at least, is to blur the line between the explicit and the implicit, or, put differently, to make evident those things which were only implied. Effective data availability is certainly a case of this. Every time there is government information that is [...]

For a few years now I’ve wanted to look into integrating committee actions into GovTrack. Along with full roll call votes, it would be nice to be able to see how committee members voted in committee on various issues. Finally I took a look at a report PDF from the House Armed Services committee on [...]

We came across Rep. Tom Reynolds’ (NY-26) google map of his earmarks a little while ago, and it appears that someone really went above and beyond in showing info about the district. Frankly, I’m completely unfamiliar with the issues or politics of this district, and I don’t even know if this is a comprehensive [...]

Governmental communications demand scrutiny. Not just from citizens demanding accountability, but also from within any specific department or office. Coordinating communications can be a tricky task, especially within a large operation, so it isn’t surprising that significant time and attention are given to editing, clarifying, planning, and releasing press statements and official correspondence.
What [...]

A few days ago, I wrote a post about the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution.
My basic point was that members of Congress have certain privileges granted by the Constitution, giving them freedom from legal action relating to their legislative duties. Congress members aren’t above the law, so only legislative acts qualify as [...]