CrackBerry Addicts vs Twittering Sunlighters on the Floor of Congress

Here's a tale of two radically different uses of technology on Capitol Hill: the first to keep all but the most-connected people out, and the second to let the rest of us in. In the first case, we have Members of Congress who are crack-berry addicts staying in permanent contact with their cronies and donors, even on the floor where lobbyists are supposedly banned. And in the second case, we have a Republican Congressman who is Twittering from what he calls the "deepest and darkest hole" in Congress.

Case one: Today's Politico has a fascinating story called "Are Members Blackberry addicts?" that describes how seven out of ten Members of Congress and staffers use the ubiquitous handheld devices to keep up with their email from the people they really want to stay connected with: donors and lobbyists. More than 8,000 of the devices are used by members and staff on the House side alone, a number that exploded after the GAO starting giving them out on the Hill after the 9/11 attacks.

As reporter Daniel Libit writes, "People who mull such things are beginning to ask whether Capitol Hill’s BlackBerry addiction ... is putting too much power into the hands of small groups of well-connected constituents, exacerbating partisan polarization and snuffing out whatever’s left of Washington’s political sanctuary removed from the parochial concerns back home."

Libit notes:

While average citizens still reach out to their elected representatives via letters or e-mails to a general inbox, donors and friends are more likely to have a member’s personal e-mail address — and with it, a virtual hotline to the member’s hip.

Great! Now lobbyists have an even more efficient way of whispering in Members ears, literally on the floor of Congress!

Other observers suggest to Libit that Blackberries may make some Members more attuned to the web in general, while the general thrust of Libit's piece is that it's just making them more distracted. Personally, I suspect Congress's Blackberry usage is probably doing little to improve the body's ability to think about or do anything long-term. A friend of mine once referred to measuring Congressional attention-spans in "Belto-seconds"; crack-berry usage can only make that worse.

What's not discussed in Libit's piece is the possibility that new technology could open up how Congress does its work, instead of just feeding Members' already hyper-insular work style. And that gets us to Case Two, a pioneer on the House floor who may just be showing the way, Rep. John Culberson of Texas who has, shockingly, been Twittering openly from floor proceedings and is even considering doing some live video-blogging to open up public awareness of what he calls "the darkest and deepest hole in Congress," the House floor.

For the last few days, @johnculberson has been engaged in a friendly dialogue with @stereogab, the communications director for the Sunlight Foundation, Gabriela Schneider. Sunlight's executive director Ellen Miller just posted about their exchanges. (Full disclosure: I am a tech advisor to Sunlight.) Here's a taste of Culberson's view from the hole:

Major bills like Farm Bill, Iraq War funding bill were written in total secrecy by a handful of people and then filed the night before floor vote w no comm hearing, and then floor amendments are either prohibited or limited…Why not create a Sunshine Index for every day the House is in session? For every bill - how much time between bill filing and floor debate? Was there a Comm hearing? Amendments allowed in comm or on floor? How many? How much debate time? How many pages long is the bill? How much money does it spend? This is where Democracy is being killed every day - on the floor.

As Ellen says, "It’s refreshing to see a member of Congress who personally tweets updates about his work as a legislator, often from the House Floor. We love that he talks specifically about bills being considered in real time so we know how he is going to vote on a pending bill and why." Ditto.

Culberson is also experimenting with live video-blogging, using a Nokia N95 and Qik.com. He's mulling taking us to the House floor with him, and showing us just how the sausage is made. I think that's a terrific idea (though it shouldn't be a substitute for real systemic transparency, like getting Congress to post bills online before they vote on them).

It's time to show @johnculberson some love, because if he dares to open a real technological window on Congress's inner workings, there will be a lot of people on the inside trying to patch the broken firewall that hides the people's business from the people. And a lot of us hoping that it stays down.

To contact Rep. Culberson, you can go through his official email contact page from his Congressional website. Or you can take the simpler path, and direct message him on Twitter.