It sounds silly, but it is, in fact, true. In this month of May, fifteen years ago, Ted Kennedy became the first Senator to communicate with constituents over the Internet. Back in 1993, this was no small feat. At the time there were no congressional offices connected to the Internet. (The House launched a pilot program on June 2, 1993, hooking up seven members to an Internet network.) One dedicated staffer and the technology hubs of MIT and other top-level educational institutions made Kennedy into the first digital Senator. Here's the story (which you can read about in more detail Chris Casey's book, The Hill on the Net):
Continue readingContractor Database Shrouded from Public
The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) has long championed the establishment of a publicaly assessable contractor misconduct database that would include criminal, civil, and administrative cases in order to prevent offending private contractors from receiving contracts from the federal government. POGO has set up their own Federal Contractor Misconduct Database, listing companies with histories of misconduct such as contract fraud and environmental, ethics, and labor violations. Backing up POGO on the need for a public database are 32 like-minded organizations (including the Sunlight Foundation). U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney has introduced H.R. 3033 which would establish the database and make it publicly available. The bill passed the House last month. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) has introduced S. 2904 which mirrors the House bill.
McCaskill's bill has stalled, however. GovernmentExecutive.com reports "senators on the Armed Services and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees -- both in the majority and minority -- would not support the bill if the database were open to the general public." The article quotes unnamed members of McCaskill's staff as saying there were two main objections to making the database public. One was concern over "administrative challenges" of a public database. Two databases would have to be created, one for governmental eyes only (which would include sensitive and private information) and one for the public. Transparency is too much work, I guess. Another concern objecting senators have is the fear of "Monday morning quarterbacking" by the public. Oh, we don't want the public second-guessing governmental decisions...Jeez.
Continue readingThe Onion really knows how to get to the heart of an issue
Compete for Project Grants at Mobilize.org
Mobilize.org is a non-partisan organization dedicated to educating, empowering and energizing the Millennial Generation -- young people ages 15 to 29. Millennials are by far the most Internet-savvy and networked generation, at least until the next one comes along. I certainly share Mobilize.org's view that this generation will use the new technologies and the social networks to get more engaged in politics -- just as have they use technology in every other aspect of their lives.
Yesterday they announced the Democracy 2.0 Entrepreneur Grant Summit - Money in Politics, which they are hosting in Denver on July 18-21. Sunlight is supporting the competition to support projects working to promote clean elections practices. Every proposal must make creative use of new technologies and the Internet to advance their goals. The winners of this community based contest will receive $3,000 to $5,000 grants to pursue the goals of their proposals. Click here to find out how to apply.
Continue readingHands on Budgeting
As we head into the general election period, American Public Media, the public radio entity best known for producing A Prairie Home Companion and Marketplace, has launched an instructive and fun online game titled Budget Hero. The game allows you to set the U.S. budget by cutting or raising taxes, and increasing or decreasing spending. You want universal healthcare? Add it to the budget. Increased funding for Social Security? Go for it. Bring the troops home from Iraq? Just do it. Obviously, all such decisions will impact your budget. In this sense, it is similar to the 1993 computer game Shadow President. But with Budget Hero, every major decision, such as to repeal the Bush tax cut and raise taxes on the rich are accompanied with a list of pros and cons and potential impacts.
The folks at American Public Media worked with the Congressional Budget Office and the Government Accounting Office to get the data correct. When you finish, the game allows you to compare your "budget" to other gamers. A serious and detailed review of Budget Hero can be accessed here. This is a fun tool that can teach you alot.
Continue readingdg.o Conference Reactions and Resources
I wish the Open Access movement were further along, and academic publications were posted in public online, because that would make it easier to share some of the things I've learned in the last two days at the Digital Government Society Conference. Since I can't link to most of the research I'm learning about, I'll have to just offer my basic reactions:(read more)
Continue readingPeer to Patent
I've been fascinated by the Peer to Patent program in operation over at USTPO (and not just because my son-in-law works there). Beth Noveck highlights a very interesting video today that explains why this is a cutting edge project. We think it's a terrific model for collaborative government.
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Hyper-Hyper-Classification
The Bush Administration's lust for secrecy is well documented. And as davidk at TPM Muckraker wrote recently, Bush and Company is "the most secretive administration in history."
But even so this latest gambit by the Administration is over the line. The Washington Post's Walter Pincus reports on how earlier this month the Bush White House issued a memorandum outlining new Executive Branch rules on the handling of sensitive but not classified information. They coined the term "Controlled Unclassified Information" (How's that for bureaucratic doublespeak?) for information so sensitive that its disclosure would create "risk of substantial harm." They replaced the term "Sensitive but Unclassified."
Continue readingMcCain Campaign Loses a Foreign Agent Whose Firm is on the Saudi Payroll
On April 15, my colleague Anu--who's been digging into foreign agent lobbyist disclosures--posted a piece noting an oddity about the lobbying firm founded by Thomas Loeffler, a national co-chairman of the McCain campaign. The Loeffler Group had been paid more than $15 million by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia since 2003 and had had on average about 10 lobbying contacts a month (that is, meetings, phone calls, lunches, etc.) with members of Congress, their staff, and executive branch officials. After March 26, 2007, the firm stopped lobbying government officials on behalf of the Saudis. Yet the Loeffler Group continued to be paid a retainer--some $990,000 in the last six months--despite not doing very much on behalf of their client. Over the weekend, Loeffler left the McCain campaign; as Mike Allen of the Politico noted,
It’s at least the fifth lobbying-related departure from the campaign in a week. ... The McCain campaign last week announced a restrictive “McCain Campaign Conflict Policy” that included a questionnaire to be returned to the campaign’s legal department as part of a re-vetting of all staff. “No person working for the Campaign may be a registered lobbyist or foreign agent, or receive compensation for any such activity,” the policy says.Continue reading
Publius Project@Berkman
In conjunction with the Berkman@10 Conference (where I just returned from spending a fascinating two days), the Berkman Team has launched their Publius Project. (The name is borrowed the writers of the Federalist Papers. ) The goal is for it to be a platform for lively discussions on the governance and rulemaking of the Internet, and they have solicited a number of thoughtful Internet gurus to submit short yet provocative essays on the subject.
They have posted op-ed style essays by Pierre de Vries, Esther Dyson, Dan Gillmor, Reed Hundt, David Johnson, J.P. Rangaswami, Doc Searls, Wendy Seltzer, Clay Shirky, David Weinberger, Kevin Werbach, and Jonathan Zittrain so far. They asked me to submit a piece as well, and I am so honored to join this discussion with such a collection of Net luminaries. You can access my submission here.
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