Last week, Matt Stoller, president of Blog PAC, principal at Open Left, and Sunlight Foundation consultant, gave an interesting speech at the University of Connecticut Law School where he advocates a rethinking of the historic approach to campaign finance law, a system that has not kept pace with the Web 2.0 revolution. 

Reformers usually think about changing the campaign finance laws to limit the influence of big money in politics. As we know, the lion’s share of the money is spent on TV, radio, and for mass mailings, what Matt terms "spammy media." This, he says, should be regulated. But for the Internet, what Matt calls "social media" because of its infinite possibilities  for consumption and participation, he suggests a deregulation scheme.  Specifically calling for the establishment of a kind of two-tierd regulatory system that limits the "spam quotient" of modern campaigns and encourages the social context of politics.

Interesting… Check it out.

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This morning the Heritage Foundation hosted a terrific panel of the primary conveners of the Sunlight sponsored Open House Project - John Wonderlich, Rob Bluey, Matt Stoller and David All. And while the conversation touched on some of the specific recommendations of the work, it was mostly a very articulate and thoughtful musing by the four 20-something leaders of the effort about how they marshaled the online collaborative effort across a sharp political divide on bringing the House into the 21st century. The genuine bipartisanship was hated by one right-wing blogger, but was defended by two of the conveners — Rob Bluey and David All. Can't wait to hear what Stoller has to say.

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I spent part of the weekend following the very smart conversation that has already begun on the listserv that is forming the core of the collaborative effort for our new Open House Project. I used to consider myself a kind of Congressional process geek (to wit I spent part o the weekend reading the many posts on this listserv), but the folks participating in this collaborative bipartisan effort to study how the House currently integrates the Internet into its operations, so it can make recommendations to the leadership on how to do it better, have an amazing breadth of knowledge.

The participants in this project are meeting online via listserv, blog and wiki. The project's being led by Matt Stoller (of MyDD.com) and John Wonderlich (lead coordinator of the Congressional Committees Project on DailyKos) with Sunlight's senior strategists Andrew Rasiej and Micah Sifry providing ongoing support.

The bipartisan group includes some very smart people, including renowned technologist Clay Shirky, Bush/Cheney 2004 eCampaign Director Mike Turk, Govtrack creator Joshua Tauberer, and leading blogger Markos Moulitsas-Zuniga of the Daily Kos. These folks will regularly talk with leaders in congressional process and the Internet. Citizens will be asked for their assistance in creating consensus on short-term reforms that can be implemented in the House. Our goal is to have a report ready to be present to Speaker Nancy Pelosi in March.

Here's an oportunity to take what you know (or what you think) about how Congress should make itself more transparent and get involved.

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