Open Congress

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OpenCongress is a free, open-source, non-profit, and non-partisan web resource with a mission to help make Congress more transparent and to encourage civic engagement.

URL = http://www.opencongress.org ( [email protected] )


Description

1.

"The Participatory Politics Foundation builds software tools and websites that create new opportunities for continual engagement with government. Voting is important, but we have a chance to go further and create a political process that is meritocratic, creative, and participatory."


  • OpenCongress is Participatory Politics' first project to be launched.
  • Participatory politics sees the need for citizens to get involved in politics and make their voices heard in order to make a difference, and with today's technology (specifically the internet) they believe that this is possible
  • "create new opportunities for engagement with government. Voting is important, but we have a chance to go further and create a political process that is meritocratic, creative, and participatory."

(http://www.eu.socialtext.net/wiki-government-and-democracy/index.cgi?action=weblog_display)


2.

"All this data about Obama, and any other Senator, can be found on OpenCongress.org, a project quarterbacked by the Sunlight Foundation based in Washington. Consider Sunlight a political journalist’s best friend – it tracks fundraising events for politicians, displays the status of bills, follows voting records of all lawmakers, lists lobbying disclosure records, posts schedules of participating legislators and investigates how earmarks are being used. If that weren’t enough, the Sunlight Foundation also awards grants to Web 2.0 organizations trying to make information about Congress and the federal government more accessible to Americans." (http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/260949)

More Information

David Moore Executive Director, Participatory Politics Foundation E-mail: david |at| ppolitics org