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I’m pleased to announce, on behalf of the Participatory Politics Foundation, that our flagship project OpenCongress.org has been acquired by the Sunlight Foundation. The Participatory Politics Foundation (PPF) created OpenCongress in 2006 and launched it in 2007. Since then, OC grew quickly to become the most-visited nonprofit site for tracking the U.S. Congress, with a total of 27 million web visits, 69 million pageviews and 300,000 registered users. I’m proud of the OpenCongress user community that grew organically and their huge appetite for engagement with Congress. With news of this acquisition, I’m now excited to introduce the OC community to PPF’s next major project, AskThem Read Full Article

David with PPF here, I'm down in D.C. today in preparation for a rally tomorrow by the Stop Watching Us coalition against mass domestic surveillance. This morning I attended a training by EFF, Public Knowledge and others on Capitol Hill for citizens going to lobby their members of Congress and Cong. staff on public opposition to NSA spying. I'm proud to be listed as an individual supporter of the protest, but what's really impressive is the over 100 public-advocacy organizations and companies that have formed the coaltiion. More after the jump. Read Full Article

Today, I’m encouraging you to sign up to help test an improved version of OpenCongress. We’re pleased that developers from Sunlight Labs have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to fix bugs and continually improve OpenCongress’ data quality and user experience. Sign up here to be the first to know when the latest version of OpenCongress is ready. The folks from Sunlight will be in touch to give you a preview of the site and to give you an opportunity to tell us what’s working, what’s not and what you’d like to see. Read Full Article

This weekend in D.C. - it's the "un-conference" of the year for #opengov heads & civic engagement developers. That would be Transparency Camp, organized by the Sunlight Foundation. David from OC & PPF will be there to demo our next major project: OpenGovernment.org - for city- and state-level government engagement. See more ideas on the schedule & see you in D.C. this weekend & follow along on micropublishing. Click through for more sessions about which I'm excited. Read Full Article

Update, Friday March 29th: This phase of the Knight NewsChallenge ends at 5pm ET today, so please helps us now by clicking "applaud this" on our proposal page: OpenGovernment.org - a version of "We The People" for state, city, and local governments ... then please post an update on Facebook or Twitter or email to encourage more views & applause of our proposal, suggestions below:



Click "applaud this" for @open_gov in the #NewsChallenge - "We The People" for every level of government: http://kng.ht/13XMh02 ... much more info after the jump, including where we stand in the competition, other NewsChallenge proposals to applaud, and why we hope you'll give a click to support our tiny non-profit team. Read Full Article

The OpenCongress team has submitted a project to the Knight Foundation NewsChallenge: OpenGovernment.org - a version of "We The People" for state, city, and local governments Support our non-profit work - please visit that page and click "applaud this" in the right-hand side, then create a free OpenIdeo account or login securely through FB Connect. Once logged-in, your applause will count immediately - we're currently ranked 22nd of 822 proposals. Next, here's a sample Facebook or Twitter update you can share to help us spread the word: Click "applaud" for OpenGovernment.org in the #NewsChallenge - "We The People" for every level of government: http://kng.ht/13XMh02 ... with your quick help, we can roll out OG to hundreds more city governments this year. Much more info after the jump. Read Full Article

Barely a year after the defeat of SOPA, Congress is back to testing the waters for legislation that many internet users believe to be in violation of their fundamental rights to privacy and free expression. CISPA, a bill that would make it easier for corporations and the government to share internet users' personal data, was officially re-introduced in the House on Wednesday. It’s already being rushed forward in the legislative process. The House Intelligence Committee is holding a full hearing on the bill today at 10 am. They will hear from four witnesses -- all from the business sector and all supporters of CISPA. No experts with concerns about privacy issues were invited to address the committee. Read Full Article

Public polling shows that a majority of Americans now support legalizing marijuana, but will Congress even consider taking pot off the banned substances list? Today, two members of the House -- Rep. Jared Polis [D, CO] and Rep. Earl Blumenauer [D, OR] -- are introducing legislation to change the federal marijuana laws. One bill would regulate marijuana like alcohol, and another would establish a federal marijuana tax. The introduction of the bills is a first step, but it doesn’t mean that there is broader institutional interest in Congress for taking up the issue of legalizing pot. Read Full Article

By a vote of 78-16 , the Senate last night approved a new rules package that keeps in place the procedural loopholes have turned the Senate into a brick wall for sensible legislation. Under the new rules it will still be possible for a single senator to halt progress on a bill, or even on a motion to proceed to a bill, simply by stating that they intend to filibuster. In recent years, this procedure, commonly known as the “silent filibuster,” has prevented the Senate from passing even the most routine, non-controversial legislation. Read Full Article

One year ago today, thousands of websites and millions of internet users took action to stop major internet censorship bills in Congress, SOPA and PIPA. The protests changed the way many people think about politics by proving that bringing together an educated public to take action, online, can defaet the corrupt agendas of the most powerful interest groups and members of Congress. To celebrate this enormous, ground-shaking victory, we (PPF) are joining a bunch of the other groups that were involved in the SOPA fight in declaring today, January 18th, a new holiday -- “Internet Freedom Day.” Read Full Article