John Wonderlich, writing at the Sunlight Foundation blog, picked up on a mashup of earmark data and Google Maps and made an awesome discovery: it’s ridiculously simple to mashup earmark data on Google Earth.

Rep. Tom Reynolds, a Congressman from upstate New York, produced a Google Map of his earmarks in his district. Wonderlich notes that, when data is mapped onto Google Maps, it’s automatically converted to a KML file, which lets you view that information in Google Earth.

The result: a very cool-looking 3D images of Reynold’s earmarks.

Wonderlich sees some hopeful implications in this proof-of-concept:

As information sources build on each other, will politically desirable information be something integrated and expected, like traffic signs? Or maybe annoyingly present and self promotional, like consumer product packaging? Who knows. At a minimum though, government’s relevance will become more obvious, and verification will be an easier task, more likely to function as the basis for measured debate and reasonable discourse.

It’s amazing to see how an application that can show you the whole world actually works on the local level.

Ruby Sinreich, who blogs about Orange County, NC politics at OrangePolitics.org (and also blogs for techPresident) layered the addresses of candidates for local office, elected officials, polling sites, and voting districts on Google maps:

The maps certainly add another dimension to local politics. The data gets even cooler when you open the KML file in Google Earth:

Google Earth = Measured debate and reasonable discourse? We can dream.

earmarks | Google Earth | Google Maps | Sunlight Foundation
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