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How can Repubs and Dems Work Together Online to Create Government Transparency?

New communication technologies are recreating democracy and the Web is the enabler. Citizens can use the Web free government information from unwieldy sites, to lobby for more data online, to scrutinize government information and to ask hard questions. If this effort is coordinated across the political spectrum, activists can unite and use legislative data to make Congress more accountable. How can each party leverage government data and coalesce parties irrespective of their ideological or partisan affiliation in order to achieve policy victories?

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As stated, the internet is an incredibly useful tool that can do many things to aid in the transparency of government, something I am totally in favor of.

Real-time information is the future, and the government could take advantage of this by having current, real-time information on what certain parts of the government are doing at the time.

The sports world has already taken advantage of this technology. One can already view the real-time scores, statistics, and plays of a game over the internet. If government brought this into, say, Congress, the average American could look at what Congress was doing last Tuesday, what they are doing right now, and track the statistics and up-to-date voting records of politicians. If enough people see that an elected politician often doesn't bother to come to the Capitol, then it's very possible that he or she will not be re-elected. If a certain candidate promised in his campaign that he or she would do one thing, and then it is shown that he or she has voted in the exact opposite manner, it would be an easily available public record, and voters could make more effective decisions when electing people into office.

Transparency in this fashion will encourage our policy makers to strive to do everything they can, rather than taking advantage of the benefits and getting relatively little done in Washington. When what you do is available for all to see, you are more likely to keep your promises.

Side: Realtime information