Government-citizen collaboration projects and resources

Other Current projects
Examples:

The Peer to Patent Project
Link: http://access.wa.gov/search/

Description: (from the site) is probably the best designed example of substantive public involvement, although it isn't legislative.

Politicopia
Link:

Description: is a public wiki, set up in conjunction with the Utah State Legislature's Rules Committee.

Rep Honda
Link:

Description: posted legislation and accepted public commentary on their proposed STEM Act.

Rep. Kuhl
Link:

Description: launched a "Fix Washington" project, where citizens proposed legislative priorities

Senator Lieberman
Link:

Description: developed the first E-government Act of 2002 in conjunction with a public Web site that collected priorities and suggestions. From the accompanying report language: On May 18, 2000, Senators Lieberman and Thompson launched an on-line `experiment in interactive legislation', a website that sought public comments on 44 topics related to possible measures that Congress could take to advance the cause of e-government. Topics were organized into categories, such as `centralized leadership', `funding innovations', and `digital democracy: citizen access and participation,' and ranged from `centralized online portal' to `interoperability standards' to `G-Bay': enhanced online distribution of federal government surplus property.' For each of the topics, a short discussion described the status of current efforts and the `New Idea', or ideas, being offered for consideration. Visitors to the website could then submit their comments on the subject, and read views that had been submitted by others. Nearly 1,000 comments were submitted, approximately one half of which were posted on the website after being reviewed by Committee staff.13
 * [Footnote] Comments were submitted by private citizens, academicians, federal employees, and even federal agencies. OMB also responded to the website by soliciting views from federal agencies; OMB officials then consolidated agencies' responses and presented them to the Committee as a single document. Opinions, additional information, and alternative proposals submitted over the website proved helpful as Senator Lieberman formulated his electronic government legislation.
 * [Footnote] 13Comments were reviewed primarily for appropriateness and relevance; Committee staff did not favor any particular viewpoint in deciding which submissions to post. The website was intended to educate the public about the potential of e-government, to solicit input and information on the many topics being considered for possible legislation, and to serve as both an experiment and an example of how the Internet could be used to make government processes more accessible to the public.

Senator Dick Durbin
Link:

Description: held public discussions on Open Left and Redstate, asking the question: "What Should We Include in our National Broadband Strategy?"


 * In a sense, the California initiative process involves citizen participation, although it bypasses more than it augments the legislative process.