Capitol Words is an interesting new tool from the Sunlight Foundation. The presentation of reminds me a little of Wordle which is a good thing. It’s nice to see government information in an easy to asborb format. On Capitol Words users can view an image map or tag cloud of the top words of the day, week, month or year used in Congress. It’s very captivating and a quick way to see the topic trend over a period of time
As you might imagine, “budget” has been the most popular word in recent weeks. There is also an option to view by most vocal lawmaker by a specified period of time. Richard Durbin (D-IL) is the most vocal member of the past 60 days.
]]>![[Post to Twitter]](http://informationknot.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter.png){kind=icon}
]]>As critics slam the administration’s Recovery.gov website for a lack of accessible data, a private company has launched a rival — Recovery.com.
Onvia, a 12-year old consulting group, started Recovery.com with the goal of providing real-time data on spending that comes out of the $787 billion stimulus bill.
]]>Government 2.0 has reached its midlife crisis. Despite some leadership from influential individualson using social software in government, there is still in many cases a disconnect between authorities issuing directives and ground troops carrying them out. In some corridors of Washington, this impervious middle section of government is jokingly referred to as “the clay layer,” the layer through which no light shall pass. Resistant to change and adhering strictly to doctrine even when nonsensical, people in the clay layer can halt progress. Despite their intentions and being in a strategic position, they often stop the progress being called for.
This midlife crisis was pointed out by one of Government 2.0’s most outspoken evangelists, Chris Rasmussen, of the U.S. intelligence community, at a well-attended event held recently in the Washington area. As covered in a widely read trade press article, Rasmussen lamented the impossibly high standards that social tools are held to, even within government firewalls. Furthermore, many tools, such as Intellipedia, are used as supplements to (rather than substitutes for) legacy systems. As Clay Shirky once quipped, this is like putting an engine on a rowboat to make the oars go faster.