Here is the url for it through GovExec.com --
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?filepath=/dailyfed/0108/012308tdpm1.htm
Patrice McDermott
On Jan 24, 10:24 am, "John Wonderlich" <
johnwonderl...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Good to see some progress being made here. From the sub-only nat'l
> journal's tech daily:
>
> *E-Government*
> *Lawmakers Favor Outside Access To Legislative Data
> *by Aliya Sternstein
> <mailto:
asternst...@nationaljournal.com><
asternst...@nationaljournal.com>
>
> The legislative process could become a lot more exciting if lawmakers
> get their way in freeing the data inside the Library of Congress'
> legislative Internet database so that independent Web sites can repackage
> the information.
> In November, the House Administration Committee asked the library to
> explore solutions for supplying the public with raw legislative information
> from the database, dubbed THOMAS
> <
http://thomas.loc.gov/><
http://thomas.loc.gov/>, committee spokesman
> *Kyle Anderson* said on Wednesday.
> "The library is looking into the resources that would be required to
> make this data available," spokesman Guy Lamolinara confirmed. A report to
> the committee is expected during the first part of the calendar year.
> "By providing an open legislative database to the public," sites could
> "better tap into the knowledge of the American people," said Democratic Rep.
> *Mike Honda* of California, who along with Rep. *Zoe Lofgren* , D-Calif.,
> has made the same request of the library.
> Web sites like the online encyclopedia Wikipedia that anyone can
> modify, as well as the Linux computer-operating system, whose underlying
> code can be read and altered, demonstrate the benefits of open systems,
> Honda added.
> At a recent hearing, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
> Committee Chairman *Joseph Lieberman*, I-Conn., also recommended that the
> library present Senate votes in a structured format so citizens can have a
> better look at the records of their elected officials.
> *Rob Pierson*, Honda's online communications director and president of
> the House System Administrators Association, said that currently, Honda's
> site must rely on links to show visitors his most recent votes and sponsored
> bills.
> THOMAS' data would let his office display the information on Honda's
> own site and allow bloggers to embed automatic notifications of updates,
> known as "trackbacks," to bills sponsored by Honda, Pierson said. Access to
> the raw data "would encourage an explosion of innovative Web sites."
> One beneficiary of the proposal may be linguistics graduate
> student *Joshua
> Tauberer*, who has already launched GovTrack.us, a noncommercial Web site
> that compiles the status of legislation and voting records from THOMAS.
> If the data were made available as a bulk download or delivered in
> slices, it would fill some of the gaps on GovTrack, Tauberer said.
> Currently, the site cannot reliably obtain a daily list of the bills that
> have been updated, and some bills show up on GovTrack with outdated
> information.
> The data is important because no single view into the workings of
> Congress is best for everyone, he added. "Reporters, kids and citizens at
> large want to see Congress from different angles and want to see different
> connections exposed between votes, legislation, money, earmarks, etc."
> But the change likely would affect paid-subscription sites that charge
> for legislative updates. Their "business model will need to evolve to
> compete with citizen technologists," Sunlight Foundation Program Director *John
> Wonderlich* said. Companies may need to add more substantial analysis in
> order to compete with free services, he added.
> There also may be resistance from congressional administrators, who
> "are often wary of taking on new departmental responsibilities if they are
> not accompanied by statutory justification or appropriations," Wonderlich
> said.
>
> <
http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp080123.htm#top%...>
> <
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