April 28, 2006

Introducing The Congresspedia

The Sunlight Foundation held a press conference 4/26 a.m. to launch "its efforts to harness the transformative power of the Internet to bring transparency and accountability to Congress and its members."

The new non-partisan (but goo/goo/center-lefty)/non-profit organization unveiled its "first wave of projects" including the Congresspedia website, "the citizen's encyclopedia" of Congress. A joint project with the Center for Media and Democracy, Congresspedia is part of SourceWatch, "a collaboratively-written, wiki-based wesbite documenting the people, organizations and issues shaping the public agenda."

The wiki format allows anyone to submit or edit information on the site, but "users are required to register before they make contributions." The Center for Media and Democracy Research Dir. Sheldon Rampton said unlike Wikipedia, the content will be monitored by a full-time, paid editor. Therefore, entries that are inaccurate or partisan will be removed.

Rampton: "Finally, the media and the public will have a constantly updated, ever-evolving resource on what members of Congress have done and are doing on their behalf. We urge everyone who cares about the kind of leadership they have in Congress to contribute to the site."

Sunlight Foundation Exec. Dir. Ellen Miller commented on the lack of information readily available to the public, citing that "lawmakers still file their financial disclosure forms on travel, gifts and legal expense funds in paper form only" and that "Senators file their campaign contribution records on paper." Miller: "Unfortunately, Congress is still living in the last century." More: "The state of public disclosure is so arcane that it can most accurately be described as primitive."

Miller announced "the first of a series of Transparency Grants to organizations dedicated to using the Internet and information technology to promote transparency and openness in" gov't. Recipients include the Center for Media and Democracy, Center for Responsive Politics, OMB Watch and the Project on Govt. Oversight. Further, investigative journalist Bill Allison and researcher Larry Makinson were named to head "two additional web-based projects to assist media and citizen watchdogs in the fight for more transparency for lawmakers." [KATHERINE LEHR]

Posted at 01:51 PM

Comments

ionolsen21 I like your site

karel | 10.18.06 02:34 PM

Post a comment