Transparent and Responsive Governance

At Sam's suggestion, this is cross-posted from my place (Tropophilia); original post here.

At long last, some reactions from Netroots Nation:

We’ve all witnessed the rise of social media and web 2.0 tools in electoral campaigns. But at some point, in order for that increasing participation of individuals in their chosen candidates’ political fate to influence those politicians’ actions in office, the tools of the social web must extend beyond the campaign sphere to governance itself. This idea fascinates and excites me; after all, the reason many of us welcome and trumpet social media in the campaign space is exactly because we believe that participation in elections will lead to more accountable and responsive elected officials.

It’s easy to claim success on the campaign front. Sure, there are undoubtedly miles yet to travel in terms of involving all voters in the electoral process. But if the 2004 and 2006 election cycles did not convince you that online social tools will be a staple in campaigns—large and small—from now on, just look around at 2008 candidates.

What hasn’t been as visible—or, for the most part, widely accepted—is the use of social media in governance. Fortunately, a number of folks are trying to do something about that disconnect between electoral contests and policy implementation.

Andrew Hoppin moderated a Netroots Nation panel (in the running for ‘most unwieldy panel title at Netroots Nation’) called “Transparency, Participation and Reinvention in Government in the Next Administration Through Web 2.0 Tools and Culture.” Micah Sifry quickly and thankfully renamed the panel “Rebooting Government in 2009.” Hoppin framed the discussion by sharing his own experiences working for NASA in Silicon Valley (at the Ames Research Center). He recalled his frustration, years ago, at the enormous cultural difference between surrounding Silicon Valley and the NASA compound. Outside the gates, the spirit of experimentation and opening networks was driving the success of many start-up companies that are now household names. Inside the gates at NASA, on the other hand, an antiquated culture of closed knowledge and traditional communications and public outreach persisted.

Micah Sifry, of techPresident and the Sunlight Foundation, cited efforts to shed light on the legislative process and involve citizens in governance. I'm looking forward to giving these resources a closer look; for now I'll link to them and summarize:

Fedspending.org

A database of government contracts and earmarks; sheds light on the enormous volume of no-bid contracts and allows individuals to track spending in their district or as a result of their representatives

The site has fielded seven million searches since its Oct. 2006 launch

Opensecrets.org

Enormous database of political contributions and other campaign finance data; allows voters to track financial data on lobbyists, 527 organizations, and campaign contributions.

1.3 million montly visitors; 26 million searches of the lobbyist database since Oct. 2006 launch

Earmark Watch

Crowd-sources the examination of earmarks in legislation; anyone can add information about an earmark and question its legitimacy

Open Congress

Intended as a user-friendly re-packaging of the Thomas congressional database [let me say on behalf of all political science students: amen]; allows individuals to track and comment on legislation

As of 7/18, one particular bill (the Emergency Extended Unemployment Compensation Act) had received over 23,000 comments

6,000 users have registered for myopencongress, which enables social features to legislative tracking (“people who are tracking this bill are also tracking…,” etc)

Public Mark Up

I wrote about this site here, but the idea is to receive public input on draft legislation; Sen. Durbin’s office is thinking of using this platform for the draft version of a broadband bill

Politicopia

A more localized example (centered on Utah and policy issues in that state); from the site: "Politicopia is a wiki. The site functions as a tool for collaboratively accumulating and presenting information. That could be useful, since information is one of the two elements of political power."

The genesis of many of these efforts is the attitude expressed by longtime lobbyist Paul Miller, who Sifry quoted in his presentation:

"I don't think the way you advocate is to put everything online and say, 'All right American people, weigh in on that,' because then what's next?" Miller asked. "Are we going to let the American people decide our defense policy, our trade policy, our immigration policy?"

As Sifry said, “Our answer is: yes.”