In an age characterized by low voter turnouts and the popularity of the Internet, efforts are underway to improve the public's understanding of politics through various Web-based digital projects.
A series of panel discussions this month are highlighting progress in developing Virginia-based digital databases geared toward making political information more accessible to the public.
This month's panel discussions, sponsored by the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership, are focusing on three recently developed and updated Web-based digital projects: the Virginia Public Access Project, the Richmond Sunlight blog and the Virginia Elections and State Elected Officials Database Project.
University Politics Prof. Charles Kromkowski developed the Virginia Elections and State Elected Officials Database Project in conjunction with 125 University students. Kromkowski began using his database in the classroom in 2001.
This database allows users to search for biographical information about Virginia state officials elected since 1776 and also provides election data for the Virginia General Assembly from 1949 to the present.
The database is the "first site that actually goes and aggregates state election data together in a single public resource," Kromkowski said. "It's intended to be a pilot project that shows the possibility of creating a 50-state database project."
The Richmond Sunlight blog, which was launched this year, takes a non-historical approach and focuses on the General Assembly.
Waldo Jaquith, the creator of Sunlight, said he wanted to make the information from the General Assembly more easily understood by the public.
"There [are] three basic features that make [the site] unique ... the ability to post a comment to any piece of proposed legislation ... tagging ... and graphs," Jaquith said.
Tagging allows anyone to add a keyword to a piece of legislation, making laws easier to find in the database. According to Jaquith, in summer 2007, the Sunlight blog will become the property of the nonpartisan Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, headed by Rev. Doug Smith.
A third database -- the Virginia Public Access Project, created in 1997 -- has recently implemented interactive maps that allow people to view the geographic locations of political candidates' donors.
All three digital projects are designed to make the political process easier to follow for people who normally would not be involved.
According to Sean O'Brien, director of the Sorensen Institute and moderator of the panel, these three databases, "will be very important in the [upcoming] election year."
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