By Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
Can you imagine having a software tool in your laptop that requires a few clicks to reveal the key relationships between a Member of Congress, companies getting federal contracts and political groups supporting or opposing that senator or congressman?
Or how about a software tool that tags your choices of topics as they appear in proposed legislation in Congress, so that you know it as soon as a Member drops a new bill on health care pricing, a weapons system in DOD, Freedom of Information Act exemptions or a million other subjects and issues?
And maybe you would like to have a software tool that makes it easy to stay on top of what selected representatives or senators are saying on specific issues and how they are voting on them, too?
All of those tools and much, much more are among the entries in the Sunlight Foundation’s Sunlight Labs Apps for America contest. It’s a contest and it has attracted scores of entries from developers, activists, organizations and lone rangers.
But what really makes Apps for America significant is the fact it is a super illustration of how the Internet can be harnessed in a seemingly infinite number of ways to increase transparency and accountability in government. That makes Apps for America a landmark in the development of Government 2.0 and beyond.
