Change Congress gets first Member. Also, I like Newt Gingrich's latest project.

News Flash - Congressman Jim Cooper (D-TN-5) has joined Larry Lessig's Change Congress Project.

Ellen Miller - Exec. Director, The Sunlight Foundation

David Kralik - IT Director, American Solutions

I walked in late, but just late enough to hear Ms. Miller talk about Congresspedia and other projects, including one that the Sunlight foundation is launching to allow Members of Congress to post their financial disclosures and other info online.

Earnhardt talked about Cisco's blog and how they've used it to get the word out about policy issues.

Kralik works for Newt Gingrich's project to create a "more positive dialogue" online, American Solutions, which is founded by former Speaker Gingrich (R-GA) is a project that wants to use technology to create bipartisan, open platforms that candidates can support and sign on to. It allows people to submit all kinds of polling data and firsthand accounts of how they are affected by public policy issues (e.g. health care). Another way is collecting real-time data and proposed solutions to other issues (wiki-style), such as making English the official language of the U.S. (87% support it, although that's been accused of being a Frank Luntz number.

Kralik made an interesting comparison to eBay in that American Solutions (a 527 group) posts their financial disclosures monthly, which goes far beyond the IRS requirements. 

Trivia item: Newt launched the project in Second Life, and they're active in that world as well, wanting to build a "virtual island" for legislators to meet. Kralick (and possibly Newt) believes virtual worlds allow for massive possibilities for transparency and open meetings.

Their goal is to get all 513,000 elected officials in the U.S. involved (number from 1992 Census data). 

Many people look at Newt as a kind of GOP boogeyman. In reality, he was a historian before he was a politician, and was always more of an "idea man" than a political animal. I like the idea. When i asked Kralik to clarify, in a nutshell, Gingrich wants a "multi-partisan or tri-partisan (incl independents) effort to have ordinary people submit policy proposals and solutions have "the cream rise to the top" (my words, not his). Very, very cool.

The moderator (Lasica) wanted to know if there were precautions to prevent vandalism and astroturfing. While Kralik noted that American Solutions allows for "wild west style" Wikis, Miller pointed out that Congresspedia has two full-time editors. All agreed that the "fear" of websites being trashed has not been validated.

Miller pointed out that when they made transparency information a game "guess who employs their own spouse" people got alot more "into it." Very cool. It lets people play investigative reporter, as moderator Lasica put it.

Onto the next panel!