XML.com has a great series about a guy who plans to “collect as much data on the U.S. government” so he can build “a site and a web service that make it possible to explore that data”. The first installment is available: Screenscraping the Senate. This is extremely exciting, as it has the potential to re-introduce public oversight, or at the least involvement in the dealings of our elected representatives, much like the project They Work for You does in the UK.
This is a very detailed article, dealing with advanced Web development techniques, so it may not be of interest to most people, but its results should be of interest to a wide population. Then again, perhaps I have unreal expectations that people do/will care about the direction of their government. Oh well, I’m excited.