eDemocracyCamp: Communicating with Congress
Presenters: Rob Pierson & Will Johnston
I’ve got a more cohesive review here.
Topic Code for e-mail
- Help Congressional offices deal with increasing volumes of e-mail
- Provide a unique identifier for each new mass mail campaign
- Would allow offices to aggregate all letters from a specific organization on a specific topic AND view how constituents have customized a form letter so that the office can read what they think
Alternatives forms of communication
- Polls
- Something like a Digg for Congress
- Perhaps something with a Congress-wide account that ensures you contact your own Representatives/Senators
New media methods of communicating with Congress
- Blogs
- Problems with comments and what can be placed on an official site
- No electioneering, vulgarity, slander/libel
- Does it need to be on a governmental level?
- Should we change the law to allow for more open discussion on forms/blog comments that are run by Congressional offices/government and concern ourselves less if a citizen decides to post a political comment or something that is vulgar? Basically, is open discussion more important than being sure that government resources aren’t being used for electioneering?
Need to update franking regulations to reflect realities of modern Internet
bigthink.com – Video site for larger, more issue based discussion
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