

Aaron Swartz's newest project: watchdog.net - rob
http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/watchdog

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henning
I've thought about doing something kind of like this in the past (tying
together tons of data on corporations and individuals -- campaign finance, tax
and financial info, etc) but concluded that to make it meaningful (rather than
looking like a big data dump) would require a collaborative effort approaching
that of Wikipedia and abandoned it.

The question is, you know X donated money to Y at a certain date, and Y is on
the board of Z Corp, and ... so what? I never could figure out an answer.

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aaronsw
Yeah, this was the bit that held me up on the data site for a long time. It
didn't seem like succeeding could do anything but depress people. But talking
to others in this sphere, there are some legitimate things you can do with the
data: for example, Dennis Hastert (R-IL) recently had to resign in part
because of some earmark data that someone uncovered; he was replaced by a pro-
reform Dem particle physicist a month ago. So I think connecting it up to the
media and building voter scorecards and stuff out of it could be effective.

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tjr
Indeed, if making such information easily available results in "actual
changes", as opposed to merely "availability of information", then this would
be totally awesome.

Of course, a website like this can only make the information available, but
hopefully it will be used productively. Best wishes!

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jaycee
Currently it only provides availability of data. There's no reason that it
couldn't then provided next actions for that data--it's pretty easy to toggle
a form that emails your congress person, or submits to local news, or any of a
variety of actions.

Indeed, I think that's a direction it's heading, and the combination of
information + action could be potent. How many people avoid taking action b/c
it's just a pain to get out of their desk chair?

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jraines
I wonder which of his other ones are still going strong. Jobbook seems
abandoned even though it was a great idea (or at least, addresses a real
need).

There are a lot of organizations doing really good watchdog work -- the
problem is getting people to pay attention.

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henning
Sometimes it's impossible to resist the appealing thought that there are
purely technological solutions to social problems.

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randallsquared
Technology is the only thing that has ever solved social problems. You just
have to find the right technological solution. :)

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Badlogin
UK has had this for ages: <http://www.theyworkforyou.com/>
<http://www.writetothem.com/>

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Alex3917
It seems like Aaron would benefit from writing down both his goals and
assumptions.

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inklesspen
How are his other projects doing? If I were going to get involved, I'd want to
look at his track record of commitment, or lack thereof.

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xlnt
So what is his plan to avoid the site being biased?

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ten-seven
It's been done, in several different forms. It depends on your political
leaning how you manage to do it. His politics is evident from other writings.
Using the name "watchdog" gives it an air of legitimacy it may not, or ever,
deserve.

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apu
Just because it's been done doesn't mean it can't be done again, better. And
as long as relevant data is pulled for _all_ candidates irrespective of
affiliation, his political leaning should not matter.

