I heard of Topix when it was first launched. I thought it was a good idea but haven’t visited it much. Today, I had a need to find news relating to a specific local news item – contamination of a local raw milk supplier. I need this news because I was very sick recently and I drink raw milk from the dairy in question. I entered the topix site, did an advanced search for raw milk and my zip code. I instantly had an article related to the news event I was interested in. Perfect! In addition, I added that search to my rss feeds so that I will be updated for further developments. I don’t think news gets any better than this.
Good news for independent government.
Opencongress.org is providing access to a dense concentration of governmental information without the spin of politicians and without the narrow focus of traditional media. They’re even out-doing traditional media outlets that have a strong presence on the web. How do they do this?
Opencongress.org is free. You don’t even have to ignore any gesticulating mortgage lending ads. And they don’t just skim across the surface – they’ve got it all. Proposed bills, amendments, voting history by congressperson. Further, all this info can be filtered by issue, industry or committee. Finally, all of this data can be tracked via RSS. It’s like political watchdogging for the people. Try it, it’s fun!