The Sunlight Foundation recently launched PublicMarkup.org–a site that provides a simple, blog-like interface for soliciting feedback on legislation being considered in Congress. The legislative issue of the day, of course, is the proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial sector and there appears to be an active community currently debating the Senator Dodd’s legislation online. Having already launched a number of innovative projects that are increasing the transparency of the US government (including MapLight and Congresspedia) the [...]

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On Friday last week I was at the National Defense University’s Government 2.0 symposium talking about the opportunities web 2.0 creates to transform the way governments deliver services, organize their workforces and create policy. The event was a celebration of the Information Resource Management College’s 20th anniversary and IRM director Bob Childs tells me that it was the largest event in the institution’s history. My biggest surprise was not that so many people showed up, [...]

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A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of speaking to Ken Eklund, a freelance writer and game designer, and the creator of a fascinating Alternate Reality Game (ARG) called World Without Oil. As the world grapples with climate change and other global issues, we both agreed that interactive gaming experiences could play a vital role in engaging the world’s citizens in the process of finding solutions. If you haven’t heard of or experienced an [...]

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Choice is a foreign concept in most health care systems around the world. Sick patients are advised on the appropriate course of treatment by their doctor, referred to a specialist where appropriate and then handed a appointment time — choice rarely enters into the process. Broadly speaking, the assumption is that patients are not sufficiently informed to make reasonable choices about their health care, so there is little point even offering choice. In fact, choice [...]

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