Wiki-Government?

Beth Simone Noveck, of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas:

...New technology may be changing the relationship between democracy and expertise, affording an opportunity to improve competence by making good information available for better governance.

Noveck examines how people could potentially help improve the regulatory and legislative processes via wiki-like participation.

It's not as radical as one would think. As it stands now all legslation and much regulation here in Maine must go to public hearings where individuals can show up and speak on items before legislative committees and regulatory boards.

If one has specific knowledge that could help regulators and legislators become better informed you have to make time in your schedule to go to the public hearings and hope you can get to speak during that time.

An online version of this would be a great asset, as all too often laws get passed with little to no public knowledge or input.

Of course methods of seaparating signal from noise would be needed. Something like Slashdot's or Digg's forms of comment moderation could do the job of identifing the most useful information and arguements.