Forum Post: Open Congress Wiki

Posted 12 years ago on Jan. 22, 2012, 4:23 p.m. EST by ithink (761) from York, PA
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

Pretty cool..

http://www.opencongress.org

5 Comments

Read the Rules

[-] 2 points by Listof40 (233) 12 years ago

What I also hope there is public pressure on is against allowing bills to have bundled 'rider bills' that get attached to the main bill, so it is harder for reps to vote on, and be responsible for, each individual thing...

Ideally, each specific proposal should be voted on individually, particularly if it is controversial, or if there is wide disagreement... Sometimes these riders are in totally unrelated areas than the initial bill... this can undermine the voting process...

Like the healthcare bill had so many things in there that should have been separated, so that pecial interest additions can get better scrutiny..

Some may say that bills will take too much time, or it's too much work if they are separated... but it is probably better than having a lot of questionable elements tacked on...

Just some ideas...

↥twinkle ↧stinkle reply permalink

[-] 3 points by ithink (761) from York, PA 12 years ago

"undermine the voting process".. Agree. Are we supposed to trust an institution that encourages such mockery?

↥twinkle ↧stinkle reply permalink

[-] 1 points by Listof40 (233) 12 years ago

Just a thought, but I wonder if it would be interesting if ows decided to bring awareness to specific problems, but like work a list of issues, maybe one specific issue for a certain time (like 2 weeks), or until a certain goal is met....

That way also when asked, people could refer to what the activism is at that time, and so to raise awareness of that issue...

There are a lot issues people have concerns about, so maybe each different focus will get some support from the movement as it goes along thru the issue list... this could give each issue some momentum...

To a degree politics should really just be about ideas and about public concerns, not party lines and special interest influence, etc... so ows could at least focus on ideas and work specific issues one by one for now, while things develop...

This could even help determine what the 'media focus' is, instead of relying on news channels to decide what is given air time, this might help influence the public discussion...

I think there is positive influence that ows is bringing to some issues in general, and maybe capturing that momentum and by working each issue could help utilize it even more, not sure tho...

Ows is kind of doing that already with certain dates for certain issues, but maybe having a specific structure for could help in addition too...

Dave

↥twinkle ↧stinkle reply permalink

[-] 1 points by ithink (761) from York, PA 12 years ago

To maintain that kind of organization, would likely be a full time job for quite a few people. Something like this could happen if it developed naturally though. For example, one person creates a plan for attacking an issue from start to finish. A second person comes along and uses the same process, but improves it. Kind of like, open source activism. Which is kind of what is going on now. However, most successful open source projects have detailed documentation, standards and procedures.

↥twinkle ↧stinkle reply permalink

[-] 1 points by Listof40 (233) 12 years ago

Yep, I agree with you on that, it would probably require additional resources, time, coordinating, etc.. Probably is fine as they are currently doing with trying to raise awareness in general... and issues as they come up...

↥twinkle ↧stinkle reply permalink

[Removed]

Public Forum

Forum Post: Open Congress Wiki

5 Comments