OpenGov - Open Government Brainstorm

Can't they do this themselves? It doesn't mean anything if they don't use it. I know Rand Paul uses facebook and gets support through it, so I don't know what is stopping them.

postmen are not government employees

facebook is a huge time-suck

people have a right to privacy even if they work for the government.

This seems like a huge waste of time. We have better things to do than this.

While the proposed implementation is suspect (facebook) I believe the intent is legitimate. Our representatives should be publicly accessible where we can see the other type of communication they are receiveing. Right now when I contact my representatives my communication goes into a black hole where the only results that I see are a form letter spit back out form their secretaries office, more often than not it comes nowwhere close to addressing the original content of what was sent.

Any of these ideas will face the problem of organizing large amounts of data which can be consumed either by our representatives or by those that they represent. Perhaps once these problems are identified we will be able to use or invent technology which can assist in compiling all of that information.

Until we force ourselve into those problems we will not know what we face. Necessity is the mother of invention.

I agree with geblack. Good idea. Most of our Rep's have web sites that we pay for already, i.e. http://LASTNATME.senate.gov/public/ or http://www.house.gov/LASTNAME/contact.shtml. I'd like to see the Facebook ideas applied to what's in place and what's not privately or corporately owned.

Good concept, bharshaw!