Poking around on Organizing for America during last night's presidential press conference, I came across some neat technology. OFA is harvesting health care stories from Americans, and displaying them on a map of the U.S. Health Care Stories from America has some neat doodads and twirly bits, like an "Amplify" button that boosts particularly poignant stories (of which there are many) in the site's rankings.

But there's an unanswered question here of, to where does this lead? Health care legislation is being hammered out in Max Baucus's conference room and Henry Waxman's office, not in the backyards of America. Even under Obama's ideal timetable, legislation would have just a view days of vetting at best by members of Congress before a final vote on the House and Senate floors, and from there to conference committee. There's one scenario in which citizens have an intense period of lobbying their representatives in person, by phone, or via email to pass the bill, and that these stories might provide powerful fodder for the contacts that they make to their elected officials. They might also be great tools as supporters aim to rally their neighbors to pressure their officials. But there's a possibility that this is just an exercise in busy work directed by an organization that knows it has a supporter base but isn't quite sure what to do with it, while the real action is taking place behind closed -- and impenetrable -- doors in Washington.