The New York Times has released a new, free Web service that developers can use to create applications that track how Congress members vote. Join me in offering kudos to the New York Times and in wondering why this service isn’t provided by the government itself.
If I were named CTO of the United States government, I’d require that all new public-facing government applications expose Web services, and that internal developers use those services to build their own applications, thus insuring that those Web services remain useful and up to date. It would both improve transparency and probably increase the quality of the applications offered by the government.
January 9, 2009 at 12:30 am
As somebody who is currently making a living developing web applications for the .gov, I endorse this idea 100% (and it may happen, at least partially — I hear rumblings from time to time…)