The Open House Project is a non-partisan group working to enhance public access to Congressional information. Launched by the Sunlight Foundation [Disclosure: PdF founders Andrew Rasiej and Micah Sifry advise the Sunlight Foundation] in early 2007, it works to understand and explain how the House of Representatives integrates the Internet into its activities and recommends improvements.

The Project's goal is not a radical transformation of the House with technology but rather to "pave the cow paths" created by existing procedures. [Ed: arguably, this is how downtown Boston got its streets, but they paved the paths of a drunken donkey.]

Radical or not, the Open House Project email list has some very interesting discussions. Recent posts cover:

• whether to make "Dear Colleague" letters available online
• the threat of a rules change which would prohibit Representatives from using public websites (like YouTube)
• the meaning and importance of "Legislative Reductivism" and
• what edits can be made to the Congressional Record

John Wonderlich, founder of the Open House Project and now Sunlight Foundation Program Director, will be taking questions from us on Thursday, July 10, at 2pm EDT. He'll describe the project, talk about what it has done, what is planned, and how to participate. Ask him questions now and come back Thursday to join in while he's online.

Congress | interview | Open House Project | Policycommons | Wonderlich
Dave Witzel's blog | email this page | delicious | digg | technorati