Yesterday, I blogged about WriteToReply.org, a brand new site built by two smart and enterprising fellows to research online and comment publicly on a new report released by the U.K. government’s Ministry of Communications, Technology and Broadcasting on what the government should to enhance digital capacity and enterprise in the UK. The agency came under criticism for not including a means for citizens to comment and make suggestions online. Thus, earlier this week, WriteToReplay.org site was born and went live.

Another important Internet-related report in the U.K. has emerged, the Power of Information Task Force Report. And the principals of this report have taken a very different approach than the Ministry of Communications, they’ve placed it online and are asking interested citizens to read and comment on it.

Last March, U.K. Cabinet Office Minister and Member of Parliament Tom Watson established the Power of Information Task Force to advise and assist the government on how it can better serve its citizens through information technology and digital media. And from the beginning, they were mandated to operate in an open and transparent manner using modern media. The process all started back in 2007 when the government asked Ed Mayo, CEO of Britain’s Consumer Focus, and Tom Steinberg, founder of MySociety.org and Sunlight friend, to investigate the growing popularity of social media and what implications it has for government. Mayo and Steinberg produced a report, which profiled the social and economic benefits of government using its information better. Watson commissioned the task force to advise and assist the government on delivering the benefits outlined in the Mayo/Steinberg review. And he asked them to answer these three questions: How can government further catalyze more beneficial creation and sharing of knowledge, and mutual support, between citizens? What more can and should be done to improve the way government and its agencies publish and share non-personal information? Are there any further notable information opportunities or shortfalls in sectors outside government that those sectors could work to rectify?’ Earlier today, Michael Cross, a technology write at The Guardian, profiled the task force and the 25 actions the report advises government to take. Included in the suggestions are government’s embrace of social networking, blogging and other Web 2.0 tools. “Top of the list is a relaxation about civil servants accessing - gasp - social media at work,” Cross writes. He notes that today, 90% of departments either ban browsing entirely or place restrictions on staff wanting to use social media or other Web-based tools. He quotes the report, "Public sector workers cannot be expected to be up to date with the power of information to transform public services if they cannot access the Internet at work." Last year, as many of our blog readers know, Sunlight sponsored the “Let Our Congress Tweet” campaign, where we helped convince Congress to change it’s antiquated rules on Internet use, allowing lawmakers to fully embrace communication technologies. Minister Watson and his task force are acting in a similar spirit.

On Friday, we told you about the happy ending to months of negotiations to modernize the Franking rules that govern how members of Congress can use the Internet to communicate with us about their work. The new rules just passed by the House and Senate allow members of Congress to communicate with us on sites such as Twitter, YouTube and Flickr without recrimination. (We advocated for these rules changes through our bipartisan collaborative effort, the Open House Project, and through our popular Let Our Congress Tweet campaign, the first Twitter-based petition to Congress, which hundreds of you joined.)

Before these new rules were passed, lawmakers could not officially embed a YouTube video on their official Web site, nor could they join us in political conversations around the popular virtual water cooler that Twitter has become.

To celebrate this historic precedent, we created Capitol Tweets, a widget you can embed on your site that updates you every 10 minutes with the latest tweets from members of Congress who use Twitter. Download the widget, and while you’re watching the tweets fly, check out this effort by David All (who co-wrote the Open House Project chapter on Franking reform with Sunlight’s Paul Blumenthal) to grade them on their tweets.

Shouldn't members of Congress be able to connect with all of us freely and easily online? I'd guess most of you would think that's a good idea. So, when Sunlight's Open House Project Google group got riled up this week about this issue, we were inspired to do something to rally citizens to ensure lawmakers can freely connect with us all online.

In that spirit, we are launching a new campaign, Let Our Congress Tweet, to urge Congress to make clear guidelines that do not inhibit lawmakers from freely interacting with constituents where they already go online to share ideas-through Web services like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

Join our petition right now and make your voice count.

Last year, Sunlight's Open House Project issued a report recommending straightforward technological reforms to increase transparency and public access to the work and members of the U.S. House of Representatives. One of our major recommendations was to permit lawmakers to take full advantage of Internet resources. Wonks will know this as our recommendation to modernize the Franking Rules that govern how members of Congress use the Internet to communicate with constituents, primarily through their official Web sites.

Unfortunately, these rules are decided ad hoc in advisory opinions. (A guidebook given to lawmakers about all their activities includes some rules about their Web use. When Congress first developed rules governing lawmakers' use of the Internet, it viewed the new medium as an extension of telephones, mail, radio and television, putting e-mail and member Web sites under the purview of franking regulations. Franking regulations were developed to restrict lawmakers' sending of unsolicited mailings to constituents, but today the differences between the old and new forms of communication are so great that a rethinking of franking policy over electronic communications is necessary.

Under the current system, members of Congress are forced to break rules to use new technologies and services to do what their constituents ask of them: connect, listen and be held accountable. So, that YouTube video you saw on a lawmaker's Web site? Illegal! Couple that with the vagueness of only having ad hoc opinions to guide lawmakers in their Internet communications on a case-by-case basis, and you get confusion as to what lawmakers are or aren't allowed to do...resulting in a chilling effect.

As Congress reconsiders the restrictions placed on congressional Internet use, you can tell Congress to embrace the communication technologies that we already use. Join us and tweet the petition now.