The Oregon Legislature, still stuck with 19th Century rules regarding when sessions are convened, is at least trying to get its technology into this millenium. They’ve scrapped paper, broadcast all hearings on both video and audio web feeds, and have a website with information that, while short of comprehensive, is pretty damn impressive. Following the Leg from home has never been easier.

But it’s not good enough.

Shoot, it’s never good enough, and given that going paperless is new with this special session, I’m both impressed and not complaining. But as long as they are heading down this road — which is the right road to be taking — they need to be aware of and address the shortcomings and problems. And at the end of the session, they need to move immediately to ensure that citizens have even better online access to the 2011 session.

Hearings: The outcomes

If you have the time to watch or listen to a committee hearing via the site's wonderful tools, you’ll know what happened. However, not many people have that luxury. With some hearings lasting 2 hours or more, and a lot of legislation being compressed into a tiny session, the ability to keep up with multiple bills is nearly impossible for most citizens. And it’s the citizens that web and electronic tech is meant to benefit; staff and lobbyists have other means, like being right there.

A summary of the hearing needs to be published to the web upon completion of the hearing. Each committee has a staff, and that staff compiles the record of the hearing. A simple summary — “The dash-4 amendment was approved, 5-0; the amended bill was moved to the floor…” — would be, in many cases, more than sufficient. What would be terrifically awesome, however, would be a brief notation of when in the hearing different things happened: “Work session on HB 666 convened at 13:30 [13 minutes 30 seconds after hearing convened & audio began]…” This would let people find the spot in the audio archive they need. And honestly, the amount of effort to do this is pretty small, just a brief notation to assist citizens around the state follow the Leg’s work from home.

Bills: Amendments

The sooner amendments are posted, the better. Given that they are electronic for the Reps and Senators and their staffs, posting them to the website should take only a minute or two (I’ve done this stuff, so I know). I don’t mean posting all the different iterations a bill might go through during a day of talking and meetings; I mean the ones that are submitted for the committee to review and discuss. Listening to a discussion about an unknown “dash-whatever” amendment is very frustrating: “You’ve done what to the bill???” Waiting several days after a bill has been dealt with just is not good enough.

Website: Simplify

The website has tons of great materials; for finding and using Oregon Revised Statutes, it’s awesome. For finding materials dealing with the current session, it’s crazy-making. The site needs to be reorganized (not rebuilt). At some point in the next month or two, some people who are good at this (and I bet you can find some citizens who would donate their time to serve the state) should review the site and redesign it for user ease. People shouldn’t have to poke and click repeatedly to find today’s agenda or when and where the Ag Committee meets and what they are discussing and what the text of that bill is (the lack of links back to legislation needs to be addressed as well). I’m no dummy, but I waste a ton of time trying to relocate a page I’d visited previously.

Website: Real text

Once upon a time, webpages in fixed-width formats made sense; today, however, web browsers have no trouble accurately displaying text that is typographically correct. A format that mere citizens can read is not optional, and not that difficult to produce. A separate version for the lawyers is easy enough to do; pdf and html versions are already produced. Simply make the “main” a user-friendly version and have a link to the legal version. It’s not that hard; I reformat them myself after downloading so I can actually read them.

The need is especially strong when it comes to sub-paragraphs: Having everything at the same physical level (no indents on the page) makes following the path of the language almost impossible. There is a reason for indenting, and there’s no excuse not to have legislation in a format people can comprehend (this is even more vital for ORS pages).

Post-session follow-up

I suggest the Speaker and Senate President create a work group headed by the appropriate Leg members with volunteers from around the state, both experts and laypersons. This group would review the website and submit both an improved format and a list of media modifications (eg, properly formatted text, use of hyperlinks, etc). The Leg’s IT staff would implement these changes before the 2011 Leg convenes. A simplified set of directions for committee staffs would also be prepared so they are able to fulfill the goals of access and legibility.

The point is not to make some geeks happy but to take the impressive work that has already been done and move it forward. Oregonians care about their government, and many of us try to follow the sessions best we can. Making the Leg’s website as user-friendly as possible is a critical next-step and cannot be delayed. The 2011 session will be the most important ever — each one is — and the more connected Oregonians around the state are, the more democratic that session, and our state, will be. As things currently stand, citizens are out-matched by the lobbyists; a comprehensive, easy-to-use website helps level the playing field.