From time to time, we receive submissions from entrepreneurs with ideas and/or products that we think ought to be of interest to PdF/tP readers. Running those pieces should not be construed as an endorsement of a specific product. Rather we welcome these submissions because it's important to build dialogue between technologists and politicos, that is, between the makers and users of new tools and services. In that spirit, we welcome this piece from J. Brooke Aker of Expert System USA. The Editors.

The Office of Public Liaison in the new Obama administration is promising to listen to citizens as it considers policy direction, legislation and brings the people to Washington rather than bringing Washington to the people. The most concrete of these proposals is to allow a five-day comment period by citizens via the Internet before the President signs any legislation. Even now, anyone can offer an opinion directly to the President here. You can contribute up to 5,000 characters. That is roughly 400 words.

Yesterday, I tweeted a complaint that the public comment page on WhiteHouse.gov, where legislation is theoretically being posted five days before President Obama's signs it to allow the public to chime in, only allowed for a 500 character entry. This is absurd, I wrote.

This morning, I took another glance and noticed the space allotted for comments had been expanded to 5,000 characters. This is much better, methinks. Though it's still a far cry from a meaningful use of the web to engage the public in monitoring and improving the legislative process. But I guess you have to take baby steps before you can walk.

Now you can enter the full text of a Maureen Dowd column and still
have 500 characters left over for a few Ana Marie Cox tweets...