I caught Ellen Miller in Wired Oct 2008 issue on "Miller's Political To-Do List;
How about some other items to add to
- Earmarkwatch.org
- OpenCongress.org
- Punch clock Map
- CrowdSourced Legislation
- One-Click Governemen
- Constant Real-Time video
Add:
- HowLobbyistWork.org
- LobbyistInsiderCellPhoneCameraWatch.org
- Lobbyist FundingtoCongress-Senate.org
Ellen Miller: Make Washington More Like the Web
By Kristina Shevory Email 09.22.08
Photo: Bruce Gilden
The 2008 Smart List: 15 People the Next President Should Listen To
1. Parag Khanna: Embrace the Post-American Age
2. David Laibson: Tweak Human Behavior to Fix the Economy
3. Carolyn Porco: Use Big Robots — and Big Rockets
4. Leroy Hood: Look to the Genome to Rebuild Health Care
5. Montgomery McFate: Use Anthropology in Military Planning
6. Peter Gleick: Deal With the Water Crisis Now
7. Jagdish Bhagwati: Keep Free Trade Free
8. Ellen Miller: Make Washington More Like the Web
9. Ram Shriram: Open Up the Airwaves
10. A.T. Ball: Wage Smarter War With Agile Army IT
11. Steve Rayner: Take Climate Change Seriously
12. Mitchell Joachim: Redesign Cities From Scratch
13. Mark Smolinski: Detect Epidemics Before They Start
14. Charles Ferguson: Beware of New, Easy-to-Make Nukes
15. Robert Dalrymple: Get Ready for Extreme Weather
The Web is a haven of messy democracy. (Want to see voter engagement and healthy debate? Read any Digg comment thread.) But the ideal of transparency and participation hasn't yet infiltrated another messy democracy — the US government.
That insight led Ellen Miller to cofound the Sunlight Foundation in 2006. The goal was to tap some of the Net's best-known thinkers in order to make Washington as user-friendly as a Google API.
Miller, who previously headed the Center for Responsive Politics, has enlisted the likes of Esther Dyson, Lawrence Lessig, and Craig Newmark to serve as advisers.
"Washington politicians like the firewall they have erected," Miller says. "They will have to be dragged into the 21st century." The next president could do the pulling — if he adopts the Internet's values of openness.
Miller shares some of her current projects along with grander ideas she hopes the next president will support.
Miller's Political To-Do List
Ongoing
· Earmarkwatch.org - When politicians makes sausage, they don't skimp on pork. More than 500 volunteers have pored through federal spending bills to create this database of kickbacks and boondoggles.
· OpenCongress.org - This site summarizes bills in everyday language and monitors related news and blog coverage. Users can also follow a legislator's voting record and submit comments on proposed laws.
·Punch Clock Map - The next best thing to putting a bell on your senator, this Google map tracks the schedules of participating members of Congress (only nine so far).
Future
· Crowdsourced Legislation - Why should elected officials be the only ones who get to haggle over legislation? Drafts of bills should be uploaded to wikis, where anyone could edit them before they get debated by the House or Senate.
· One-Click Government - Sure, you can find federal documents online, but good luck making sense of them. Build mashups that seamlessly link politicians, donors, and legislation to give a complete picture of how government works.
Constant Real-Time Video - Encourage phonecam-wielding citizens to attend government meetings and post the proceedings on YouTube.
Ellen Miller is Executive director of Sunlight Foundation.
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See Also:
Stanford Law Professor Larry Lessig Bets 'Wikipedia' Approach Will Transform Congress
Newmark, Craig
ETech: Lessig Calls for Geeks to Code Money Out of Politics
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Comments (12)
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Posted by: s5s5s5
36 days ago1 Point
"Drafts of bills should be uploaded to wikis, where anyone could edit them before they get debated by the House or Senate. "
Good luck with that, in the meantime: http://senatoronline.com.au
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Posted by: cassius
50 days ago1 Point
grr@wired's comment form silently eating my comment I just posted here a huge list of suggestions to mrs. miller and sunlight, i'll try to sum them up quickly again but it's nearly 1am here. I care a lot about this issue although I work in the tech...
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Posted by: mobiledemocracy
53 days ago1 Point
List of links I've collected with an online democracy connection: http://www.democracy.ru/english/quotes.php http://earth-intelligence.net http://earmarkwatch.org http://democracyinaction.org http://iyear.us http://groundreport.com/tv http://c...
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Posted by: Sharchen
53 days ago1 Point
As a support to crowdsourced legislation, how about crowdsourced decision-making? Check out the alpha site www.socialcompass.org. It allows us to map/rate all the issues, possible decisions we could make on those issues, and potential outcomes from...
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Posted by: kltron
53 days ago1 Point
You may want to check out http://www.DownsizeDC.org, which is trying to get more transparency about what's going on in Washington through the "Read the Bills Act"--which calls for a 7-day open review period for any bill, including the bill being post...
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Posted by: chuckthenerd
53 days ago0 Points
Assuming congressmen write the bills they pass, their bills should be under the equivalent of software source code control using a tool like CVS or Subversion. Then the electorate will be able to see the "who, what and when" behind the legislation....
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Posted by: BurningMonk
55 days ago1 Point
Check out Deliberative/Discursive Democracy and all the academic work done by people like John Dryzek and James Fishkin (the man behind Deliberative Polling)
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Posted by: apeiron242
55 days ago2 Points
Digg is a cesspool, as is Fark. Slashdot is a bit better, but still a bit crazy. Anonymity allows each person's inner jerkwad to come out. Here's my counter proposal: 1) All elected and appointed officials must make their tax returns public. 2) Al...
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Posted by: itchyeyes
55 days ago1 Point
Who in their right mind thinks of a Digg comment thread (or any Internet comment thread) as a good model for a form of governance? I prefer less groupthink, sensationalism, and political posturing from my government, not more.
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Posted by: jchace
56 days ago1 Point
I hereby coin the phrase idiocracy. That will be 5 cents per usage please
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Posted by: apeiron242
53 days ago1 Point
i think Mike Judge beat you to it.
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