Matthew Burton has a vision of supporting government with an open software platform managed by a foundation. A "Mozilla for government" if you will. He'll be online today at 2pm answering questions and taking comments about this vision as well as his other projects. Join in!

You can never leave the safety of the beltway without missing something. More twitter-dome news breaks while I'm at the beach. The Gray Lady runs with the story but misses the point. Representative Culberson makes a constructive intervention and apologizes for going partisan. Could this be progress?

Joshua Tauberer, wizard and chief elf behind GovTrack, has added another layer of openness to a site that is pretty much see-through already.

Further proof that what happens in twitter doesn't necessarily stay in twitter is the continuing controversy over the use of new technology by Congresspeople (or over Democratic attempts to silence Republican tweets).

The Open House Project intends to "pave the cow paths" of the US House of Representatives. In the mean time, its email list has timely and stimulating discussion of technology, the House, and more. Project director, John Wonderlich, will be answering your questions live and online on Thursday, July 10.

I finished reading rebooting america on the 4th of July - 44 essays by very thoughtful people. You can read it too on dead tree or electrons. Here are some of my favorite bits.

The Congressional Management Foundation reports that citizen engagement with Congress is up dramatically while Rick Shenkman argues that American voters are dumber than door posts. Coincidence?

Debategraph brings collaboration to Obama's VP selection process -- add your analysis. David Price, co-founder of Debategraph, will be taking question live and online tomorrow -- ask him about the process.

Mark Klein of The MIT Center for Collective Intelligence is working on, among other things, "The Collaboratorium. An online platform to "help large groups efficiently arrive at well-founded conclusions."

We know YouTube is big in campaigns and capable of changing outcomes. But what about in the policy space? Congress wrestles with the YouTube logo while in the UK the PM partners. Ultimately, video of a blocked latrine makes things change.