Here’s a New Year’s Resolution I wish the Senate would adpot: We will be painfully serious about using technology to support transparency.

Now, the Senate does some things right: They have a new lobbying disclosure database. They make their membership, member contact info, and committee schedule information available to the public as XML, which helps others make the information more readily accessible to the public. I hear that we will see some exciting developments in terms of (Member-to-public) constituent communication very soon. So I know that the Senate has it in them to really take things to the next level.

Technology is a key component of transparency. It’s the only way the public can hope to navigate the complexity of government. And, fortunately, this kind of technology is pretty cheap. We don’t need to build space shuttles or create new cabinet-level departments to get radically improved transparency. That’s what always fascinates me about this. It’s so damn EASY to make huge progress here, but few want to take the first steps.

In 2009, I hope to see staffers in the Senate talk to their bosses about ways to capitalize on technology to radically improve the public’s ability to see what’s going on down there in D.C. We, the Open Senate Project, are going to give you some ideas, just as soon as we get to writing our report.