Comments on: The New York Times’ Congress API opens, first step toward government transparency in US http://tech.blorge.com/Structure: /2009/01/10/the-new-york-times-congress-api-opens-first-step-toward-government-transparency-in-us/ Technology news Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:25:00 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: ken http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:/2009/01/10/the-new-york-times-congress-api-opens-first-step-toward-government-transparency-in-us/comment-page-1/#comment-155636 ken Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:52:25 +0000 http://tech.blorge.com/?p=11417#comment-155636 How is typing in your address "tech savvy"? It lists your state and national reps, roll call and how they voted on the last bills. You can one click and send email to them. You can click and go to their websites. It will send you weekly newsletters if you want listing weekly votes and attendance. You can easily find out how they voted on a particular bill. Look, I can even get my local officials: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/officials/locality/?entity_id=5974&state=FL It's really hard to see what the NYT api will do except to reinvent the wheel, my first link is already doing it, no tech savvy needed if you can read and click. How is typing in your address “tech savvy”? It lists your state and national reps, roll call and how they voted on the last bills. You can one click and send email to them. You can click and go to their websites.

It will send you weekly newsletters if you want listing weekly votes and attendance. You can easily find out how they voted on a particular bill.

Look, I can even get my local officials:

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/officials/locality/?entity_id=5974&state=FL

It’s really hard to see what the NYT api will do except to reinvent the wheel, my first link is already doing it, no tech savvy needed if you can read and click.

]]> By: Leslie Poston http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:/2009/01/10/the-new-york-times-congress-api-opens-first-step-toward-government-transparency-in-us/comment-page-1/#comment-155541 Leslie Poston Mon, 12 Jan 2009 06:48:19 +0000 http://tech.blorge.com/?p=11417#comment-155541 Those are nice tools for the already tech-savvy, just as the NYT Congress API is providing a great way for developers to make tools for the less tech savvy to use. Those are nice tools for the already tech-savvy, just as the NYT Congress API is providing a great way for developers to make tools for the less tech savvy to use.

]]> By: ken http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:/2009/01/10/the-new-york-times-congress-api-opens-first-step-toward-government-transparency-in-us/comment-page-1/#comment-155525 ken Mon, 12 Jan 2009 04:58:18 +0000 http://tech.blorge.com/?p=11417#comment-155525 The information is all easily found currently on either the Politicians own page or the respective legislative body. Here's an example: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/officials/congress/?district=23&azip=33351&state=FL&bzip=4930 By entering my address I get all the information, including all my State representatives. I've been using this site for 18 months. Need something a bit more flexible? http://www.opencongress.org/tools Open Congress is pretty flexible- you can even design custom widgets for your desktop and they seem to be a good match for your feeling that Congress is an adversary for constituents. The fact that you have a public forum as a "citizen journalist" and automatically decided the No Credibility NYT was responsible for striking the first blow to make information readily available when a simple web search would have yielded dozens of sources that have all of this info + much more for years is a statement of it's own. Information availability isn't the issue, responsible journalism being dead is. The information is all easily found currently on either the Politicians own page or the respective legislative body. Here’s an example:

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/officials/congress/?district=23&azip=33351&state=FL&bzip=4930

By entering my address I get all the information, including all my State representatives. I’ve been using this site for 18 months.

Need something a bit more flexible?

http://www.opencongress.org/tools

Open Congress is pretty flexible- you can even design custom widgets for your desktop and they seem to be a good match for your feeling that Congress is an adversary for constituents.

The fact that you have a public forum as a “citizen journalist” and automatically decided the No Credibility NYT was responsible for striking the first blow to make information readily available when a simple web search would have yielded dozens of sources that have all of this info + much more for years is a statement of it’s own.

Information availability isn’t the issue, responsible journalism being dead is.

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