Words You Can Use: The BAVC BLOG

by Angelo Sacerdote,
BAVC Media Arts Manager and Senior Preservation Specialist

I was online late one night trying to become a better concerned citizen, when I came across an interactive website called maplight.org. Basically, it takes the information from the Center for Responsive Politics and brings it to a new Web 2.0 level. On maplight.org, you can find out which special interests gave how much to which politicians and you can also view it in relation to bills that may have been influenced by these campaign contributions. One of the most stunning views is the time line view, where you can sometimes find spikes in contributions by interested parties shortly before or after key votes. Another neat feature is that you can add your own information that may not be up there, but unlike wikipedia, it is fact checked by their staff before it is published. The site is relatively new and seems to have some gaps, but as it evolves, it is sure to be a great way to visualize and confirm what you may already suspect about politicians and campaign contributions. Hopefully, this will inspire people to hold congress’s feet to the fire and make them accountable.

There is also an organization called the Sunlight Foundation that is offering “transparency grants” for organizations that are using “Web 2.0” technology to further the organization’s mission of making information about the federal government more accessible to the American people. Here are just some of the other great sites to help citizens visualize data and become more engaged in the political process:
http://earmarkwatch.org/
http://www.louisdb.org/
http://www.opencongress.org/
http://sunlightlabs.com/visualizingearmarks/
http://unfluence.primate.net/index.html

And here is a silly video to get you revved up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtiMa_xcPLY

And finally, here is a speech that Larry Lessig gave at Stanford Law School. Larry Lessig is most famous for his work on Creative Commons, an innovative alternative to copyright and has now turned his attention to the issue of corruption.
http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/larry_lessig_friday

Anyone else have any cool political Web 2.0 sites to share?