One of the great delights of my west coast trip was meeting Craig Newmark, the genius behind Craig’s List. Having been introduced to Craig’s List by my daughters, and used it myself to rent an apartment and sell a car, it was a personal treat to meet this Internet celebrity.

He’s been a huge fan of our Congresspedia. I took notes as he rattled off ways to expand it.

First, he recommended that we develop a "tool kit" for citizens on how to learn more about what their lawmakers do in Washington. (This is already on Larry Makinson’s "to do" list. When we have an initial outline, in another week or so, we’ll throw it up here for a real public brainstorm.)  Second, he recommended that we add C-SPAN and Comedy Central clips to the Congresspedia. (Already assigned to Conor Kenny, Congresspedia’s Editor). This thought was expanded by Zack Rosen who suggested links to the Crooks and Liars clips. Third, check in with Brooks Jackson’s Factcheck.org to see if there are connections we can make to his fact-checking of issue ads. Fourth, scour others’ websites — like DailyKos, HuffingtonPost — for more substance for the Congresspedia. Bloggers are writing every day about lawmakers and if someone pulls their substance onto the Congresspedia site we’ll get more of their readers involved. Fifth, make connections to journalism schools, particularly to get them involved in fact checking what’s added to the Congresspedia site.

Great ideas. Great guy. We’re more than pleased he’s joined our Advisory Board.