<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; ">Another excellent resource is Project Vote Smart at <A href="http://www.vote-smart.org">http://www.vote-smart.org</A>/. This organization is in an excellent position to collaborate with various wiki movements. They've got almost 15 years of tracking political data on thousands of U.S. candidates and elected officials.<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Here's an excerpt from their main home page:</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana">Thousands of candidates and elected officials. Who works for you? Who is seeking your vote? Project Vote Smart, a citizen's organization, has developed a Voter's Self-Defense System to provide you with the necessary tools to self-govern effectively: abundant, accurate, unbiased and relevant information. As a national library of factual information, Project Vote Smart covers your candidates and elected officials in five basic categories: biographical information, issue positions, voting records, campaign finances and interest group ratings. What would you like to know? Access our library of information through either the menu on the left hand side or the links above.</FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana"> </FONT></DIV><DIV><BR><DIV><DIV>Regards,</DIV><DIV>Steve Nieman</DIV><DIV>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</DIV><DIV>On Nov 7, 2006, at 6:42 AM, Chad Lupkes wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV>Another wiki looking for help tracking the US elections today. Everyone is working towards the same goal, which is participatory politics. I've contacted Conor, and we'll figure out how to work together after this election. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Chad<BR><BR>---------- Forwarded message ----------<BR><SPAN class="gmail_quote">From: <B class="gmail_sendername">Conor Kenny</B> <<A href="mailto:conor@sourcewatch.org">conor@sourcewatch.org</A>><BR>Date: Nov 6, 2006 2:53 PM <BR>Subject: Wiki the Vote (and stuff for your blog/diary)<BR>To: Conor Kenny <<A href="mailto:conor@sourcewatch.org">conor@sourcewatch.org</A>><BR><BR> </SPAN></DIV> <DIV style="WORD-WRAP: break-word"> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">Hello, I'm Conor Kenny, the editor of <A onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://congresspedia.org/" target="_blank">Congresspedia.org</A>. I'm writing because we're going to "wiki the vote" this week and we'd like to get your help and also show you how we can promote and facilitate your own writing. </DIV> <DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR> </DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">If this is the first you've heard from me, we found your email by combing the Internet for citizens that write about national politics on their blog, website or a place like DailyKos or RedState. Congresspedia is a great place to both find information and put up your own research on Congress, but we also see fostering citizen journalism on other sites as a large part of what we and our friends at the Sunlight Foundation are trying to do. To that end, here's all the info you need on the "wiki the vote" effort as well as some of the various ways we can help you with free tools, promotion and guidance. </DIV> <DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR> </DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><B>First the election stuff:</B> Congresspedia, the wiki-based "citizens' encyclopedia on Congress," has seen a huge influx of visitors (on the order of 60,000-80,000 a day) trying to find information on the election. To serve that need we've decided to "wiki the vote": state-by-state listings of all the people running for seats in Congress this year and profiles of the challengers with a decent shot at winning (we're up to about 100) to compliment those we have on each member of Congress. We'd like to get you involved in helping us document the winners of the races as they come in as well as helping us flesh out the profiles and create new ones for the challengers we haven't gotten to, yet. All the information you need is here: <A onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=SourceWatch:Election_2006" target="_blank"><FONT color="#0b29d3">http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=SourceWatch:Election_2006 </FONT></A></DIV> <DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR> </DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><B>The free (as in speech) promotion stuff:</B> Each profile on a member of Congress or 2006 challenger has a section on "local blogs or discussion sites" that should include your blog or diary if you post about that person fairly often. While Congresspedia sticks to documenting facts in non-partisan language, opinion and rhetoric are important parts of the political process. So, whatever your politics are, add your blog to the list (if it isn't already). I can do it for you if you email me with the information or, preferably, you can just take advantage of the wiki platform Congresspedia is built on and add it yourself. The homepage is the best place to start: <A onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Congresspedia" target="_blank"><FONT color="#0b29d3">http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Congresspedia</FONT> </A> </DIV> <DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR> </DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><B>The free (as in beer) stuff: </B>The Sunlight Foundation, which co-operates Congresspedia along with the Center for Media and Democracy, specializes in using information technology to change the relationship between citizens and government. Fostering citizen journalism is a big part of that effort and to that end they have developed several useful tools (all free and open source) for your use. The affiliated Sunlight Network, which organizes for greater transparency in government, also has several programs that may be of interest. Follow the links: </DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"></SPAN>* Sunlight Labs ( <A onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.sunlightlabs.org/" target="_blank"><FONT color="#0b29d3">http://www.sunlightlabs.org </FONT></A>/ ): Free web-based tools, including the popular "Popup Politicians" and "Earmark Map," which mashes up Google Maps with congressional appropriations.</DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"></SPAN>* Sunlight Foundation ( <A onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/" target="_blank"><FONT color="#0b29d3"> http://www.sunlightfoundation.com</FONT></A>/ ): Original muckraking by professional and citizen journalists. References and guides for online journalism. Free PR services for citizen journalists with scoops.</DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"></SPAN>* Sunlight Network ( <A onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.sunlightnetwork.com/" target="_blank"><FONT color="#0b29d3">http://www.sunlightnetwork.com </FONT></A>/ ): Advocates for greater transparency in government. Currently offering a $1,000 "Punch Clock" bounty for getting members of Congress to agree to post their daily schedules online and $5,000 prize for the best user-submitted video theorizing how members of Congress spend their day. </DIV> <DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR> </DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">If you have any questions or comments, please email me back (this is my real address). You can also reply if you'd like to be removed from this list.</DIV> <DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR> </DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">best,</DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">Conor Kenny</DIV><BR> <DIV> <DIV><FONT size="3"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10px">__________________________________________________</SPAN></FONT><FONT size="3"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10px">______________</SPAN></FONT> <DIV><SPAN><FONT size="3"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10px">Conor Kenny |</SPAN></FONT> <SPAN><FONT size="3"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10px">Editor, </SPAN></FONT><A onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.congresspedia.org/" target="_blank"> <FONT color="#0000ff" size="3"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10px">Congresspedia.org</SPAN></FONT></A><FONT size="3"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10px"> | </SPAN></FONT><SPAN><FONT size="3"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10px">Center for Media and Democracy </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN><FONT size="3"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10px">202-742-1520 x223 | ckenny</SPAN></FONT><SPAN><FONT size="3"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10px">@<A onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://congresspedia.org/" target="_blank"> congresspedia.org</A></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN><FONT size="3"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10px"> </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN><FONT size="3"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10px">Subscribe to our free weekly list serve by visiting:</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN><A onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.prwatch.org/cmd/subscribe_sotd.html" target="_blank"><FONT color="#0000ff" size="3"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10px">http://www.prwatch.org/cmd/subscribe_sotd.html </SPAN></FONT></A></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN><FONT size="3"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10px">Donate now to support independent, public interest reporting:</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN><A><FONT color="#0000ff" size="3"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10px">https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?id=1118</SPAN></FONT></A></SPAN></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>