Dick Durbin uses web to draft policy (maybe)

A quick glance at Senator Dick Durbin's web site suggests he doesn't quite understand the value of the web as a communications tool--no message apparent on his home page and only one paragraph on the page titled "Working for You". Yikes. But Durbin's recent post on Open Left is much more promising:

Today I'm writing to invite you to participate in an experiment -- an interactive approach to drafting legislation on one of the most significant public policy questions today: What should be America's national broadband strategy?

Starting this Tuesday, July 24 at 7pm EST on OpenLeft.com, I will be engaging in a series of four nightly broadband policy discussions with the online community. During those four nights, I am looking for the best and brightest ideas on what Congress should do to promote and foster broadband.

I will begin each night's discussion with a conversation about some of the core principles I think are important, and then I'll ask for you to contribute your ideas that will help me craft legislation.

If this is more than a one-way, let's-look-like-we're-listening publicity stunt, it will be a big win for small-d democracy. And if it's just a stunt or poorly executed? Expect a feeding frenzy.

--Louella Pizzuti