Governance

I went to my first meeting of the Social Media Club Boston tonight. I'd held off for a while, since I'm not in marketing. Of course, now that I'm on Twitter, I can't help from being in marketing. And, the promised topic was good: "Change-Dot-Gov".

Here's a question you don't ask everyday: how many people are the victims of human trafficking in the Boston area?

With the country focused on the theatrics of the Presidential transition, Ben Smith of Politico reminded his readers of some of the mechanics of it-- particularly the transition away from using instant messaging ("Obama staff will say cu l8r to IM"):

This article takes a brief look at basic web findability guidelines, how they are addressed by federal guidelines in the United States, and how the FCC, an agency which most commonly deals with Internet issues, fails some basic tests of such guidelines.

The Congress Votes Database from the Washington Post tells you how Senators and Representatives have voted.

But wouldn't it be useful to know what their positions are on issues coming up?

In politics, it's the whip who counts the supports before a vote. Hence: Whipster.

Take a look at the amount of effort undertaken by Talking Points Memo and by Porkbusters last August -- incidentally, not regarding a specific vote, but regarding finding out who was the Senator who placed the "secret hold" on a bill (which would have created a public, searchable database on federal grants contracts).