[cjoh]

Sigh.

Yet another tool that makes it easy to write your representative. As though this is an actual problem. It isn't. The Market is saturated with so many tools to send messages to Congress. Especially electronic ones. Whether it be Blue State Digital, Change.org, BlackBaud, Salsa, or the plethora of other online tools, this problem is solved.

In fact, it's solved too well. According to the Congressional Management Foundation, Congress receives millions of messages a day, and it doesn't have the manpower to actually read the messages because their systems are so antiquated and underfunded. It's as though the market goes "Congress isn't listening to us, we need to make a tool to make our voices louder" when in fact, Congress isn't listening to us because we're deafeningly loud.

Want to really solve a problem? Build software that helps members of Congress receive and sort through their messages. Using their IT systems. Build a FrontApp for Congress that can handle a million messages a day and cluster things by topic group and sentiment. For bonus points, add a public element to it so that the press and the public can see what members have been receiving from their constituents.

Which leads to the second thing to build to help solve the problem: build a system that for real verifies that someone is a constituent instantly. Members want to hear from their constituents, not from the general public. But these electronic messages usually come with no verification. So do you know where they go? /dev/null

As someone who has worked with these guys for years, PLEASE stop making tools like this, and work on the other side of the equation.

[sinak]

Hey there, I worked on this.

BSD, BlackBaud, and Salsa all deliver messages to congress, but only for advocacy organizations who are willing to pay. Beyond OpenCongress, I don't think there are any tools that make it easier for constituents to write their own non-cookie-cutter messages to Congress. Change.org, for example, doesn't deliver emails.

The reason why Congress receives millions of messages is because advocacy organizations send millions of form letters. Congressional staff already have plenty of tools for separating those form letters from real, constituent-written letters. I can dig up their names, but they're built by high-level contractors.

Finally, one of our plans for Democracy.io is to measure response rates from representatives, and to use that to release a public report on how well MoC respond to real constituent messages. Both in terms of timeliness, and the relevance of their response.

[cjoh]

> Congressional staff already have plenty of tools for separating those form letters from real, constituent-written letters. I can dig up their names, but they're built by high-level contractors.

Intranet Quorum. Last updated in about 1996. It's probably what 95% of staff uses, and it's woefully inadequate. Clearly you talked to zero congressional staffers in the creation of this software. Which is a shame. Because if you had, your software would be effective.

Heck, even if you'd read one of the dozens of reports from the Congressional Management Foundation _FROM 10 YEARS AGO_ http://www.congressfoundation.org/index.php?option=com_conte... you could spot the problem here.

Whether advocacy organizations "send" the emails or whether they're sent by an individual has no bearing on either the legitimacy of the message, or whether or not they will remain unread.

I'd encourage you to hop on a plane, and go visit some congressional staffers and ask them how they'd like to receive your messages. Then build a tool starting from there. Like it or not, they're the customer.

[Balgair]

I mean, how can that be? How stupid easy is it to have a web app that sends out an email? Like every 2 person start-up out there has something like this for messaging them. Honest question here, are you really the first, in the year 2015, to do this for congress in one 'clearinghouse' type site?

As I have your ear, some more questions then:

How about a direct calling option? I've used your calling to eff then connect to a congresscritter function before and it works great. I also remember hearing that a phone call is much more important than some email.

What about accountability? My emails mean nothing if I still vote for them or have no other options. I signed up for GovTracker.us to send me email on my rep's voting, but I honestly cannot make heads or tails of the 300 odd bills they all voted for the last week. Some sort of editorial function is really needed if accountability is to be implemented.

[ChrisAntaki]

> Yet another tool that makes it easy to write your representative. As though this is an actual problem. It isn't. The Market is saturated with so many tools to send messages to Congress. Especially electronic ones. Whether it be Blue State Digital, Change.org, BlackBaud, Salsa, or the plethora of other online tools, this problem is solved.

Congrats on founding & selling Blue State Digital, Joe.

[username3]

Agree. Congress needs a public ticketing issue tracking system, using it to tell us what they're working on and why they aren't working on what we spammed them to do.

Or congress should run on Twitter.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/fea...

[scrozier]

I played a very small role in this project, and did so with my eyes wide open to the issues you raise. I won't reiterate what sinak has already said well, but I see one additional benefit from this project: if public communication with Congress coalesces around this tool, then there becomes a focal point to building the Congress-facing tools you mention, perhaps even in a similarly open-source environment...solving both ends of the problem.

[s_henry_paulson]

If you've worked on projects like this, I'm surprised you'd write such a comment to sabotage such efforts.

You're never going to solve the problem of verifying people's identity without some kind of elaborate system based on public information, or a new public national id number system, and even then you'd never be fully aware that the person is who they say they are.

The problem this solves is real.

I move a lot, and I've gone through exactly what is in the video more times than I remember, in fact, as soon as I saw the video, I sent it to several people because I thought it was such a good idea.

Your representatives don't have any way to know that any of the e-mails they receive or the submissions to their own personal web pages are strictly from their constituents.. so why do you think this is any different?

Or are you suggesting that members of the legislature will read zero e-mails and zero submissions to their website?

If you honestly believe that your legislators don't have the time to deal with the people they represent, then the problem is not a technical one, the problem is that you need more representatives.

[rezistik]

It'd be awesome if there was something to let them data mine their own emails for trends. Something like Palantir for political representatives.

[tobylane]

There are some services in the UK which I think print out cards (birthday, etc) from internet orders and post them. I hear that handwritten letters work best. Maybe someone in Baltimore could hire young adults wanting to practice their writing skills to write out paid emails from legitimate citizens.

[jdjjdbne]

LOL, congress doesn't listen because it isn't in their interest to listen. Citizens without money are nobodies, congress fundraise 24/7, that's what they care about, saying anything else is either ignorant or maleficent.

What a complete waste of time, from idea to development to posting and commenting, truth sucks but congress does not care about your opinion unless it comes attached to a big check.

[toomuchtodo]

So let's stop wasting time on communicating to congress, and start building infrastructure to get people elected who represent the interests we want represented.

Don't listen to your constituents? We build the tools to get you shoved out of office next election cycle.

[prawn]

I sadly agree. I'd instead focus on tools that help people band together and make noise about an issue. If politicians catch wind of a strong enough grassroots campaign that might sway a vote, I imagine they're more likely to take action.

The wheels have to be very squeaky to get their attention over the money/influence.

Otherwise they just pretend to care.