zlacker

This is a laudable idea.

Unfortunately, the key challenge with the problem isn't architecting a DVCS-like service for legal documents (for an MVP, you could easily get by simply designing a novel frontend to git), it's an adoption problem. The current system is flawed, yes, but merely offering a superior product for less money isn't enough to make a dent in the bureaucratic nightmare of modern-day Washington.

I'm reminded of an article I saw here on HN a few months back: http://www.informationdiet.com/blog/read/dear-internet-its-n...

>>lazerw+(OP)
Adoption isn't the problem. We don't need Congress to use such a system initially; we need bills, the US Code, etc. mirrored on Github. When it's there, people will get it. The information is out there, it just needs to be processed into a usable form so that it works with Git. And it'd take millions of dollars, and have no conventional ROI, so no one's going to do it.

>>gordia+f1
Aren't bills formatted similarly? Couldn't you then just OCR them?

>>gordia+f1
There's Thomas (http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas.php). Bill text is available in PDF, XML and a printer-friendly HTML.

The question is how up-to-date the bill texts are. I doubt it can tracks in real time with changes/amendments voted on, etc. but then again any system bolted on the process as opposed to being fundamentally integrated into the process wouldn't be.

>>gordia+f1
>And it'd take millions of dollars, and have no conventional ROI, so no one's going to do it.

Your pessimism is unwarranted. There is already one user on GitHub that scrapes the US Code and mirrors it. He even tags the changes so you can diff them quite easily.

https://github.com/divegeek/uscode

>>gordia+f1
Adoption is the problem. The US Code already is on GitHub — https://github.com/divegeek/uscode — but it's only a mirror. There's also the Sunlight Foundation's OpenCongress http://www.opencongress.org/ which provides a nice way to track a bill and its participants. But without the authors actually using something like git in their process of writing the laws, this doesn't really help people participate directly.

>>sc68ca+P5
It also wouldn't have $0 ROI because there are people who will pay for advanced services built around the law-making process.

Here's an example of a service built on Ontario laws (disclosure: I made it): www.ontariomonitor.ca. It emails people when a bill passes a committee or when new laws are introduced (+ lots of other stuff).