When you're trying to encourage the use of new communications tools in a large and often disparate group of users, one of the challenges you face is finding ways to encourage innovation and experimentation in the top users while simultaneously helping less advanced users master the basics.
In our evaluations of congressional websites we found that there is a digital divide in Congress (PDF), with 'A' and 'F' being the two most common letter grades. While we will continue to cover the basics, we also want to highlight a few new and innovative ways Members of Congress are engaging citizens in the 112th Congress:
- Speaker John Boehner sat down for a YouTube interview in which he responded to user-submitted video and text questions.
- Reps. John Larson, Mike Honda, and John Garamendi hosted a twitter town hall with over a dozen Democratic Members of Congress, using the hashtag #AskDems.
- Rep. Garamendi also answered user-submitted questions on Reddit.
- Majority Leader Eric Cantor's office posed the question on Quora: How should the United States Congress use social media to enhance the legislative process?