June 07, 2004

• Fantastic idea. This is a fabulous post, juggernautco. We could use something like this for the US Congress. Big time.
• btw, search for "monkey." Some of those quotes are damn funny.
• Very nice. Hopefully they'll extend it backwards, too. There's a couple of hundred years worth of Hansards archives, after all.
• The launch of this at NotCon yesterday was one of the more gleefully shambolic events I've witnessed in recent times. "And now I'll make it go live..." "I've already done it." "Hang on, what's going on?" "I've already done it, you muppet." "I think someone's already done it. Now, if I just click this..." "Nothing's happening." "Um... It's not the site that's broken, it's the wireless... in the name of God, will people stop blogging!..." From the low-level testing of it I've done so far, it looks great - and still only in Beta... The old Hansard website was a nightmare to search and read, and contained not MP info. This has the potential to be fabulous accountability tool (but not, in contrast to what Cory Doctorow says, subversive - all it does is make the system work exactly as the system is supposed to). My MP's a bit rubbish. Also, just before that at NotCon, was Tim "Bloggerheads" Ireland's How To Stalk Your MP In Less Than Ten Minutes A Day, which was another very fine idea. Other NotCon stuff.
• I wanted to go to NotCon, but I couldn't be arsed to go into London. Isn't that interesting?
• You could surely have sent some kind of avatar. Or perhaps a robot. No?
• Think your MP is rubbish? "Mrs. Secretary for Health, is that a new haircut? Are you fully aware that that shirt is just your colour? Would you like a shoulder massage?"
• At least some researchers at Westminster have been discussing this site -- it looks (I think) easier to use for some things than the in-house database; certainly makes getting-to-know-you, getting-to-know-all-about you a damn sight (site? cite?) quicker. suspect it will be embraced more by the LibDems than anyone else, but a great tool for the public altogether. my one complaint is that the designers think "re-visionings" is a legitimate word.
• Popular searches now: iraq, copyright, monkey Very funny, people. The greatest legislative search engine ever unveiled, and all you can think to do is search on "monkey"?! *searches on "monkey"*
• I wish we could have something like this here in America - I think it would really help - but the logistics would be even more nightmarish.
• I don't know nicola - although there are no Peers at this site, there are more British MPs (657) than members of Congress, aren't there (535)? So there would have to be divisions (Senate/HR, etc.) that aren't relevent for Westminister-style Parliament, but access to debates and such is public. I mean just that although complex, entirely do-able.
• "Monkey" is now #2 on the popular searches list. Come on, people, keep it going!
• Only the terrorists would want to know what American Senators have said.
• Monkey is now #2 Hansardbombing? I did that, actually - clicked the monkey search link, then when I went back to the main page it had jumped up one place. Woo!
• I tried searching for "suspenders" - no results. The standard of MP's is falling, I fear.
• I feel as though we've marked territory there, as if we rubbed our collective butt-glands on the tree bark of their website. For this, the twenty-one red ass salute!
• We've dropped off. However, as it currently reads: "Popular searches now: Twat, iraq, dave green" ...I'm not complaining. In fact, I'm giggling. Nice post from Tom Watson about TWFY searches too - love beats hate, socialism beats capitalism, Man U beat Arsenal...