Steve Nelson of Clear Ink, a digital marketing company that helped build the Virtual Capitol Hill in Second Life, has produced a cool build in Second Life that displays information about Congress, pulling data into the metaverse using Sunlight Labs' API. The project is an entry in the Sunlight Foundation's "Mashup Congress and Win" contest that offers a $2,000 prize for "the best 'Web 2.0 Mashup' that displays information about Congress." (PdF's Andrew Rasiej and Micah Sifry are tech advisors for the Sunlight Foundation). 

Nelson built an "Info Center" that displays information about Congress based on the user's real-world address.  Just touch the sign and type in your zip code, and you're presented with with a photograph of your Member of Congress and links to their official web site and their profiles on Congresspedia, Project Vote Smart, and the Federal Election Commission. 

On the Sunlight Foundation blog Greg Elin explains how it was done.  Sunlight Labs created an API that goes into "a database that cross references zip codes with congressional districts with the IDs [that] different web sites use to use publish dynamic content on members of Congress from their particular databases."  Combine this with Second Life's somewhat open architecture, and it becomes fairly easy to make this data available.

Nelson, known as Kiwini Oe in Second Life, recorded a video of the Info Center in action, which you can view here.  While the unofficial Second Life builds for the presidential candidates are either content-light promotional platforms or new locales for flame wars, this is an excellent illustration of how to use SL for education and action in the real world. 

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