« ADVISE And Dissent: Data Mining On Blogs | Main | CapitolLink: Blogging About Cyber Sex »

A Celebration Of Blog Power

The Heritage Foundation hosted a panel discussion yesterday that celebrated the power of blogs in pushing into enactment a law that calls for a publicly accessible database on federal contracts and grants. Technology Daily was there. Here is an excerpt of the story from Staff Writer Winter Casey:

Those who hope to use the power of the Internet to engage the public in helping influence government action should consider choosing an issue that has bipartisan appeal and excites the public interest, Internet and media experts said Wednesday.

They gathered at the Heritage Foundation to discuss how authors of Republican and Democratic Web logs this summer influenced the passage of legislation aimed at creating a Google-like search tool for the government. ...

N.Z. Bear of The Truth Laid Bear and Porkbusters said the reason the bill inspired the blogosphere was because it was so "obviously a good thing" for all ideologies. Bear said bloggers harnessed the power of the public to call lawmakers' offices about the holds. The blogs "did try to motivate the public" and it became "fun and entertaining" for people to participate, he said.

"It wasn't the blogs that made this happen but facilitated it happening," Bear said.

Rebecca Carr, a national correspondent for Cox Newspapers, said bloggers exposed the secretive nature of Congress. The public felt disenfranchised about the Senate's legislative process, she said. Carr noted that government transparency issues and corruption are bipartisan problems.

Mark Tapscott from The Washington Examiner, who also blogs at Tapscott's Copy Desk, said the Internet gives the public the power to focus all its talents simultaneously. He also noted that lawmakers may want to take more steps to use the Internet to interact with the public.

Other coverage of the event is available at The Right Angle and Tapscott's Copy Desk.

A day before the Heritage event, the bloggers' work on the database bill and the interest it sparked from the White House Office of Management and Budget were the subject of a Washington Post article, which prompted more thoughts from Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters. Morrissey also was among the bloggers invited to take a sneak peak at a similar database that the watchdog group OMB Watch will unveil Tuesday.

And on Monday, Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., penned a column in The Examiner about the successful push for a federal budget database accessible to the public.

The piece included the following praise for bloggers: "In the Internet age, making this information available online should be automatic, which is why a vast array of interest groups, bloggers and commentators from both ends of the political spectrum joined forces to put public pressure on Congress when the bill was stalled."

Posted by Danny | 12:01 PM

Comments

Post a Comment