Congress Online: More Information, Better-informed Citizens?
http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2011-09-13/congress-online-more-information-better-informed-citizens
Advances in technology are creating new ways for people to participate in the political process: we can log onto Congress members' official websites, follow them on Twitter, and pore over donor lists and voting records. But is that information really making us better-informed citizens? We talk about the challenges and opportunities technology creates for communication between the American people and their government.
Guests
Brad Fitch
President and CEO, Congressional Management Foundation
Josh Tauberer
founder, GovTrack; Chief Technology Officer, Popvox
Comments
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Hi Kojo:
Regarding your current topic and communicating with my representatives, I find it enourmously frustrating, as a citizen and resident of Washington DC, to know that I have no real voice or vote in Congress. A non-voting delegate in the House just doesn't cut it.
Thanks,
Rob Gettings
Hi Kojo:
Regarding your current topic and communicating with my representatives, I find it enourmously frustrating, as a citizen and resident of Washington DC, to know that I have no real voice or vote in Congress. A non-voting delegate in the House just doesn't cut it.
Thanks,
Rob Gettings
Hi Kojo,
I used to be the Director of Advocacy at a cancer nonprofit called the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship and while there I often trained advocates in reaching out to Congress. Your listeners might find this video on visiting members, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QId75cb3oUs useful. We hired actors to show three types of visits - yes, no, and maybe - in action.
For more information on advocacy, they have a tool kit and webinars here: http://www.canceradvocacy.org/take-action/advocacy-tools/.
I hope some find this helpful!
Sincerely,
Melissa Glim
What about bad innovation? Your guests talk about innovation like a mantra for everything good, but data-driven innovation has also inundated us with spam, phishing, and invasions of privacy of increasing proportions. Those bad innovations also create jobs.
Hello Kojo
I waited until the segment was over to pass on a long ago but true story on your subject of communication with political representatives.
In the '60s and when I was still in New York I subscribed to all things political, including a newsprint-published, wonderfully anarchistic magazine called The Realist, edited by Paul Krassner, who never saw a pot he did not want to stir up.
In early '64, as the national primaries heated up, the magazine published for sale a then unthinkable bumper sticker: glossy, with a fabulous red, white and blue background and alive with swoopy fonts, it enthusiastically proclaimed "F*CK COMMUNISM," asterisk omitted. They sent a couple to all possible candidates, but got back only one response: from Sen Barry Goldwater.
In an apparently personal note, on good, thick stationery, auto-pen signed, the Senator acknowledged the submission with gratitude, and assured Mr Krassner that he in turn could be sure that his "important and thoughtful views" would "remain in the forefront of my mind through the challenging months ahead."
The Realist published a photocopy of the reply, of course, but the real question was: had it been sent in error?
I personally thought yes, it had, and that no irony was involved, but I actually knew several of the dull normals who were in positions of responsibility in the emerging campaign, and may have had insights unavailable to the whimsy challenged.
Please keep up the good work. As a third party type opponent of both sides of the current national debate, sts, and a former (read, real) republican and office holder under Presidents Nixon, Ford and Reagan, I appreciate and respect it a very great deal.