the encyclopedic entry of Congresspedia

Congresspedia

Congresspedia is a wiki designed to hold information on the workings of the U.S. Congress. It is fully contained within SourceWatch, a larger wiki meant to document the people, organizations and issues shaping the public agenda. The current editor of Congresspedia is Conor Kenny. Congresspedia is a collaborative project of the Center for Media and Democracy and the Sunlight Foundation, which also own the server and domain names.

Purpose

The purpose of Congresspedia is to give citizens and media the ability to root out corruption and bring transparency to the system. It is based on a set of basic ideas:

A well-informed public is an essential ingredient of a healthy democracy.
Most people feel they are not being well represented in Washington, while "special interests" are. Despite this fact, however, most citizens could not name the specific interest groups that support and lobby their own representatives.
The cost of winning election to Congress has become so expensive that most members raise funds year-round and work hard to maintain good relations not just with their constituents back home, but also with the "cash constituents" who supply the money for their campaigns. Everyone needs to know who these cash constituents are.
Despite the constant flow of news from Washington D.C., much of what happens in the halls of Congress is not widely known outside of the nation's capital – and plenty of insiders like it that way.

History

April 26, 2006: Congresspedia is publicly launched, with articles on each U.S. senator and U.S. representative
July 3, 2004: SourceWatch is the world's 14th biggest wiki website by mere article count.
March 10, 2003: SourceWatch is publicly launched.
January 15, 2003: SourceWatch is first created.
December 18, 2002: PR Watch editor Sheldon Rampton attends a conference in Amsterdam hosted by World-Information.org and first learns about Wikipedia.