Certainly transparency in an age of failed jouralism and news independence and news plurality... certainly that transparency could at least be facilitated by some database work... just IMDB is to me "In Memory Data Base" and that has fascinating potential. Imagine if all the citizens and votes in the USA were in a single memory database that appeared to all connected computers as a shared memory segment.... talk about transparency... great idea! The only real terrorists in this world are the weapons manufacturers, the pentagon and the american terrorist training academy in fort benning georgia... a little transparency would show them to be criminal, not "american".... great idea... just those criminals will oppose visibility, and succeed as they overrule the constitution and democracy... state terrorism is an issue of national security... as in, we can't call the mass murderers in government terrorists because the national security would be seen for the farce that it is.

This idea is wonderful. Wouldn't it be great if citizens took the same level of interest in their politicians as they did in their celebrities? Not neccessarily in the paparazzi sense, but in terms of "Oh? Joe Lieberman, eh? What's he done up until now, in terms of a political career.".

A list of major legislation that was supported or challenged, a list of party affiliation, a list of platform histories, etc. A "filmography" for politics.

this in an unbelievably great idea! take the IMDB concept - a database on a subject connected to a contributing community - and transfer it into an area of *true* public opinion. and the parallels are so similar; what would you rather do, read biased newspaper reviews of egocentric critics or check out what thousands of people jointly think about a subject? important - such a database has to stay out of a corporate context, at best it should be governed by an NfPO.

http://opengov.media.mit.edu/

Your idea already realized to a tee-

http://www.vote-smart.org

This information is already available, at different locations. I in fact get a regular email telling how my representatives voted on recent legislation.

The trouble isn't transparency. The trouble is that, if information is the only issue, most PEOPLE are too lazy and apathetic to find the information already readily available.

But again, information isn't the problem. The problem is the two predominant parties differ very little from each other; they are both intrusive into people's lives, they only differ in their specific intrusions, and the majority of people complain about government intrusion, waste, et cetera, but perennially vote for the same thing over and over.

The problem is that people -- those voting the same old same old into office to begin with -- are largely irrational. So you have a sort of chicken and egg (and forest for the trees as well) scenario here. Irrational voters vote irrational politicians into office and then complain when they can't get their cake and eat it too, and that the irrational politician instead tried to get his own cake and eat it too. And the cycle continues, transparency or no transparency.

Government growth (and all the nefariousness that increasing sizes then makes possible -- and obscurable) is permanently fueled by animal instinct, not by rational thought and action, on the part of people in general, not just politicians. Look around you. Yes, right where you are, not just to Washington.

That would be fantastic. A few good sites to use until this kind of service becomes available are Politics1, OpenSecrets, and Congress.org.

As others have pointed out, what you seek already exists!

What really has me impressed is what these Brits are doing: www.theyworkforyou.com.

And there is wikipedia.org as well, which is as informative as you make it.

I like this idea. Although, as several have pointed out, this information is available from a number of sources, it isn't available in a single, searchable database. What I appreciate most about IMDB are the unexpected links that pop up during a seach for information about a certain actor. Such subtle connections might be even more interesting with respect to politicians.

maybe it could also include corporate board member tie-ins as well...

It would be better to focus on the bills and votes not the politicians. What would truly be wonderfull is if it was to break down and explina the bills, laws, and decision before they go up for vote. Maybe then our decision makers would actually read what their voting on and see how the people they represent feel about the ideas before they vote.

I'd like to see www.imdb.com replace the Government. Istead of looking and commenting on what others are doing the system (a little like Whynot.net) would take in your comments and then produce a synapsis of the content which would be used to produce a white papaer (FIRST DRAFT) the users on the system would then vote on wheter this is a good idea. This seems to remove the requirement for ANY politicians.

It's also TRULY democratic as you are not voting for a person but what you belive yourself.

I get the feeling there might be a little opposition to it though.

Mick,

At best, this could only remove the legislature, since laws do not enforce themselves. The executive and judicial branches would still be necessary to actually enforce laws, or else there would have to be some sort of grass-roots enforcement.

Don't forget They Rule for another interesting site along these lines...

"relevent articles and editorials"... so when Joe Blow down at the local paper calls Bush an idiot they'll get their link and article on there?Anything like this would have to sort out as much editorial and opinion as is possible. Voting record, biography, resume. Otherwise there's too much personal bias or rumors or mudslinging that would get in the way.

Excellent idea, but also include any event where their voice was recorded or a video capture took place. I would like to see ALL of the issues they voted on and how they voted. Who they are in close alliance with. Where and who their campaign funds come from. Who is hurt by their actions and what was done to mitigate that damage.

I like this idea. Being someone that would love to know more, but doesn't have the time to search all the available resources (and determine which are truly objective), an IMDB-like structure would make it easier, and possibly, more complete. Seeing favorite quotes from the politician or organization or trivia would be fun and informative for some. Categories like "prison time spent" or "lawsuits as defendant" would help me make a decision. Certainly a chart of votes for and against is needed, but additionally (if possible) payout received for those votes would really put them into perspective.And no site like this would be complete (in this day-and-age) without a link to the YouTube video featuring them.

I'll join in on the chorus:

http://www.opencongress.org/

I think this a natural for wikipedia. There are other sites that do this sort of thing, but organizing and finding them is a problem. Wikipeida rocks.

That is a great idea! Also it would be nice to see the previous positions that they held in government, and what platforms they stood on to see if there has been consistancy throughout thier years of service.

Good idea, but there is a very high chance that the website will be quite biased towards the opinions of the webmaster and owner of the domain.

Long overdue. We need to keep track of those who are here to serve the public, they seem to have forgotten who they work for.

I LOVE this idea. One place for all of the basic information and links to everything else...fabulous.

My husband gets mad at me whenever I say I'm not going to vote. And one of my biggest reasons is that I don't feel I know that much about the candidates and I don't have enough time to research them enough. And I'm not that politically savy so I don't even know where to begin. I've often thought that it would be so much easier to have a single website to go to like you suggest. And I love IMDB. Great idea.

http://www.govtrack.us/