The Time Finder with Paula Eder

The way you use your time is the way you live your life.

Finding Time to Follow Congress This Cyber Monday!

Posted on April 27, 2009, under Time and Technology.

capitol2Finding time to be on top of our 24/7 news cycle and be as informed as possible about current events can be a major challenge.  However, finding time to keep up with what’s happening in the House and Senate just got easier, according to a recent story on NPR’s “All Things Considered.”

The Obama administration, working to fulfill its stated goal of moving toward greater transparency in government, started the ball rolling by setting up a website for tracking what is happening to the stimulus dollars at recovery.gov.

Clay Johnson and the Sunlight Labs recently sponsored a contest titled “Apps for America.” Sunlight Labs is a part of The Sunlight Foundation, which was “co-founded in 2006 by Washington, DC businessman and lawyer Michael Klein and longtime Washington public interest advocate Ellen Miller with the non-partisan mission of using the revolutionary power of the Internet to make information about Congress and the federal government more meaningfully accessible to citizens.”

This contest was aimed at finding the best open source web applications for finding out what’s happening in our legislative branch in Washington, DC.  The winners add to the collection of tools we have available for learning more about what our government is doing – or in some cases, not doing.  Number one in the group was Filibusted – a tool for seeing who is blocking what legislation – and how often they do it. 

Legistalker tracks the on-line activity of elected representations.  You can enter your senator’s name, for example, and see a compilation of new stories mentioning her, YouTube videos where she’s tagged, her stream of Tweets, etc.

Third place finishers were:  Hello Congress (where constituents speak and set priorities for their representatives); Know Thy Congressman (a bookmarklet that displays a wealth of info about the representative you choose); Yeas and Nays (allows you to call your congressman – from any webpage); and finally e-Paper Trail (lets you track votes and speeches of your reps – and compare legislators head-to-head).

These tools make information easily accessible, saving time and keeping voters well-informed.  The only caution I’d offer is that this, like so many other internet-based applications, offers such a wealth of data that it can be easy to lose hours exploring it all.

Your time boundaries will be key as you venture into this fascinating world.  Try setting a timer before you explore … and then let me know how it goes.  I’d love to hear your thoughts about these Cyber Monday tools!

What if you could find another hour every day? You can! You are invited to sign up and download The New Finding Time Boundary Template. It’s FREE, and when you sign up you will also receive (if you don’t already) my FREE, weekly Finding Time Tips and my FREE, monthly Award-Winning Finding Time E-zine!

Let’s explore time together …

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There are 2 Responses to “Finding Time to Follow Congress This Cyber Monday!”

#1 Alison - 27 April, 8:39 AM

Fabulous – thanks!!!

#2 Paula - 27 April, 9:10 AM

I’m so glad you liked this one, Alison. The tools put so much useful information at our fingertips.
To your time success!
Paula

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