Web 2.0 Goes to Work Tracking Congress

In the next few days, this blog will discuss a series of new Web 2.0 tools that can be used to track Congressional activity. We are all familiar with Thomas, the website developed by the Library of Congress. These are new kids on the block, many have been developed in the last year, some in the last few weeks.

For today, consider setting up an RSS feed to some of the tracking available through GovTrack.us. This is another official site from our government. And, they freely admit to using material from Thomas. But, GovTrack.us makes use of a veritable plethora of Web 2.0 tools to allow tracking bills, resolutions, the activities of members of Congress, voting records, actions by Congressional committees.

You can set up RSS fees and add widgets to your own webpage. That last feature is of particular interest to practitioners. Many firms that with a niche practice set up a webpage to keep their clients informed about recent developments in their practice area. This new feature from GovTrack.us allows you to put a widget on your site to channel relevant information to your clients.

And, if you and your clients are into social networking, there is nothing stopping you from putting that widget on your Facebook page. Web 2.0 feeds off of Web 2.0...

It's a whole new world out there.