Create a web UI for all levels of government
Government needs a user interface - not just the federal level, but state and local as well. The user interface should not only allow access to all services, but should provide information resources, including ongoing work by legislators and city councils, and the ability to discuss ongoing issues among citizens and with representatives in a public forum. It can be up to each locality to adapt it to their circumstances.
shel_kaphan
shared this idea
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mark-mywords
commented
The Obama Administration would do well to combine a number of civic participation networks. Use the ObamaCTO.org search, and look for "socialchord". In this model, there is not only access to public information, but citizens and experts can partciipate in generating "open source" style legislation, there is professionally edited citizen journalism, organic individual/group discovery, and more.
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shel_kaphan
commented
It can be a toolkit, rather than a one-size-fits-all mandate. If done right it would reduce the cost of providing services, so eventually most places will end up wanting it. And if a government doesn't want to or can't build it itself, if the toolkit is good enough others could do it. The toolkit doesn't have to originate from the government itself either...
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denb
commented
Unfortunately, it's not going to work in the United States. Local governments will not tolerate such an attempt at their autonomy. This is the downside of a federal system.
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shel_kaphan
commented
The point is not one UI vs many, but at least one UI vs. none. Having a common set of web services makes a lot of sense..
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ljsweeny
commented
why just one interface? Why not establish a common set of web services from all levels of government that would allow mashups customized to different audiences, see my idea of a cross-governmental network
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FreedomSpeaks
commented
I've been working on this for quite some time. Check out what I've done so far - http://www.freedomspeaks.com