Pause in Development
Work on RegainAmerica is on hold for now. With division in the country reaching new lows and seemingly getting worse by the day, it is unclear if our approach will be effective at this time. Online political forums for the most part have become ugly battlegrounds where insult and slander rule the day. We don’t have the resources or desire to be the playground cop for groups of nasty misfits. Hopefully in time this will change.
This article is an abbreviated version of a recent blog post. To see the entire article see RegainAmerica: Thoughts, Motivations and Current Status on this site. While we continue to ponder ways to provide positive tools for those wanting to right the ship, any and all suggestions are most welcome. My RegainAmerica email address is tim@regainamerica.com.
What is RegainAmerica
RegainAmerica began as a memory of the way things used to be in America, and the belief that by working together we can regain this greatness. It’s a collaborative workgroup / authoring environment and information portal dedicated to promoting positive change on the local, state and national levels.
The first phase will enable members to openly express their concerns on issues that matter to them. More importantly, the goal is to create a platform where people can freely exchange ideas and views and collaborate to drive real change. Later, we will launch a government information portal focusing on laws, lawmakers, and financing at all government levels, starting with the federal level. User-friendly analytics will help visitors quickly and concisely understand their government, the laws passed, and their representatives’ performance. This new virtual town square will empower people to unite, challenge the current status quo, and Regain America.
Information Portal
Getting up to date information on what is happening in Congress and other government bodies can be difficult and very time consuming. How are your representatives doing and are they voting in a manner consistent with why you voted for them? Are they honest or are they there more to profit off the grift machine? Are they showing up and voting or frequently absent? What trends can be inferred through their voting, attendance, and financial history?
Most voters don’t have the time or patience to closely follow what is really happening in Congress and beyond. To do so is a full time job, clearly not practical for most. Instead they rely upon headline news snippets to fill in the gaps of their busy lives. One cannot blame most for not understanding what is really happening in the country, trends, and what their elected officials are really up to as they simply don’t have the time, energy, or desire.
Most information is available to the public, but very disconnected and not in an easily understood form. Even very good government tracking sites such as govtrack.us have a difficult time putting the pieces together and summarizing in a concise and easy to understand way. This is where RegainAmerica can help. By building our own web scraping tools, AI agents, private AI models, and automated analysis tools voters will be able to understand the government landscape without having to devote their life to the task. Cross reference links and the ability to drill down on all data will provide the transparency to ensure the data and representations remain honest and trustworthy.
Groups
Groups are where members sharing similar interests work together towards their common goals. The purpose of these groups is to get things done and actually effect changes in government rather than just talking about them. The work output can be whatever the group decides is appropriate for a given problem. It could be a petition, email campaign to relevant lawmakers, media exposure, boycott coordination, new counter legislation, etc. Or any combination of the above.
We provide a collaborative authoring environment and supporting tools to facilitate working together effectively and efficiently. These are separate work spaces with different levels of isolation (public, private or hidden). Members can communicate among themselves through on-site messaging, forums, and through the joint document authoring system. Future upgrades are to include file sharing and project management tools (group specific). External links to legislators and other interested parties may also be included. Groups that work collaboratively often share greater resources, communicate better (more focused) and produce joint content faster and more efficiently.
Project Scope
This is a very big project. Not just in the building of our own private AI models and infrastructure, but also in the tool creation, monitoring, and automated publishing of the data. Initially focusing on Congress – the people, voting records, common financial data over time for both representatives and the effects of bills and other data specifically tied to members of Congress. Just this would provide a much needed service, but is not enough.
One eventual goal is deep analysis into money flows to members and their families. This includes direct and indirect financial instruments such as layers of corporate structure. Current techniques in this area are not up to the task though. Another major goal is deep analysis into campaign funding. Who, why and how much is this tied to member voting? Expanding this to cover State and eventually the County, City and local levels will be challenging.
At the end of the day the goal is for any American to be able to just ask what have my elected officials, as they relate to me, been up to and what do they really stand for? The information can be queried online or members can subscribe to personalized email newsletters providing periodic updates. Simplifying and improving the reliability of staying informed about government activities is essential. People should be able to do this in their spare time, not as a full-time commitment.