[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mIzjT8e0yE]
On June 7, the Transparency Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives hosted a remarkable forum inside of the United States Capitol that featured ten presentations from government officials and members of civil society on innovative tools and technologies. Following is a run down of who spoke and the services, tools and projects they shared:
- Oversight.gov, with Michael Horowitz, Inspector General, Department of Justice
- EveryCRSReport.com, with Daniel Schuman, Demand Progress Education Fund
- Congress.gov, with Andrew Weber, Library of Congress
- PopVox.com, with Marci Harris, POPVOX
- ClerkPreview.House.gov, with Veneice Smith, Clerk, House of Representatives
- CourtListener.com, with Steve Schultze
- GovTrack.us, with Ben Hammer, GovTrack
- Represent, with Derek Willis, ProPublica
- OpenSecrets.org, with Sheila Krumholz, Center for Responsive Politics
- Dome Watch, with Steve Dwyer, Majority Leader Hoyer
I attended the forum, shared insights from the presentations on Twitter, and moderated a short Q&A at the end. The event was supported by the Advisory Committee on Transparency.
I’m back at the @uscapitol, this time for a Congressional Transparency Caucus event on tools for Congressional staff: https://t.co/Tf9AL0kTVe Impressive line up of speakers & organizations. Thanks to @RepMikeQuigley for hosting & championing #opengov! #CivicTech pic.twitter.com/dPrdOocTsX
— Alex Howard (@digiphile) June 7, 2019
At a high level, this Transparency Caucus forum was a reminder of the immense progress over the past decade in using the Internet and associated technologies to improve public access to the raw materials of democracy, engage and inform people about new opportunities to learn about their government and participate in it – and the work that still remains to modernize Congress in the 21st century.
An earlier version of this post appeared at e-pluribusunum.org.