"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives. A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both."
- James Madison (Fourth President of the United States)

If we are to believe our government, there is a terrorist hiding behind every airport corner just waiting for the Transportation Security Administration to let a nail file slip through the metal detectors. Such a breach is sure to happen, and when it does, mass destruction will inevitably follow. Everyone is going to die in a hijacked airplane, of radiation burns and Anthrax-laced mustard gas.

As absurd as this sounds, we've been at or near Orange Alert, the second-highest terror alert level, constantly since 2001. Panic is renewed at each holiday and major sporting event, keeping us cowering in a perpetual state of subdued fear.

For once, the behemoth bureaucracy is accomplishing a goal individuals and small groups have been powerless to fully carry out, despite decades of trying; and that is to terrorize Americans on an almost daily basis, to the point where we are ready to hand over our freedoms to imperial tyrants.

The feds have taken jobs away from terrorists, and accomplished the same goal, without having to plant a single pipe bomb.

In the post-911 fervor, Congress established an organization that would allow police agencies like the CIA and FBI to share information. That sounded like a good idea. But it would also develop new technologies to watch our every move, to analyze our financial and medical records, to digitally identify the faces of individuals, and to monitor Internet traffic for suspicious activities. All with the wholesome intent of keeping us safe by catching evildoers before they do evil.

The name of this ominous organization couldn't get any more Orwellian: Total Information Awareness.

For some time, detailed and frightening plans for the TIA's goals were freely available from the Defense Advance Research Program Administration (DARPA). The website read like an old-school science fiction novel about a dark future where privacy and freedom were unheard of, thanks to a villainous dictator with advanced technological spy devices.

After receiving public outcry, the name was changed to "Terrorism Information Awareness", and then later to "Information Awareness Office", as if the name-change could remedy infringements on our privacy. The website has been moved around several times, and now cannot be located. The operation is no longer out in the open light.

In a free society, knowledge is power. If we are kept blind to the workings of our elected leaders (and their appointed stooges), we will never know who to vote out of office, or when to protest and petition. Our weapon is information, and we are fortunate to live in the Information Age.

If they seek to know everything about us, then we should seek to know everything about them.

A student at MIT has gone about doing just that. Using database technology and collaborative filtering, Ryan McKinley has established a website called "Government Information Awareness". The name is, of course, no mistake, as its ominous counterpart directly inspired GIA.

Echoing the theme of David Brin's book, The Transparent Society, McKinley states, "If we are to live in a society with such an extreme level of scrutiny, the most transparency needs to be at the leadership level."

If they are watching us, then we shall watch them.

McKinley's site is unique, because it seeks to organize otherwise random or confusing pieces of information. It looks at each piece of the puzzle as an entity that can be linked to other entities. An entity could be a person, a government department, an industry, a corporation, a media outlet, or a religion.

It tells us that Orin Hatch is a Mormon, and that George Walker Bush appointed Wayne Allen Abernathy to be Assistant Secretary of Financial Institutions. It shows us, in neat hierarchies, that the Commodity Credit Corporation is under the Department of Agriculture, which itself is a subset of the Executive Branch, while the Library of Congress is a part of the Legislative Branch.

To keep all of this information fresh, McKinley plans the second most unique aspect of this site: To allow peer input and review.

You and I, we the people, will be able to input new information, cite our sources, and make new links. But with rights come responsibilities. Other users will have the ability to give feedback and rate the quality of our information. Each user can give weight to the data based upon ratings and sources. And all of this can be done anonymously.

In this way, McKinley hopes to provide ways for people to share valuable information through channels that are not filtered from the top down, such as the news media, but which are researched from the bottom up.

Government Information Awareness has gotten a lot of publicity since its launch on July 4th, 2003. Hundreds of articles were published in a syndication flurry, and both Fox and CNN put the story, and McKinley, on TV.

The feedback has been mainly positive, and people are interested to see where it all goes.

Some people have voiced concerns about making public all information about public officials, but I am inclined to believe that knowledge is the lubricant for a well-working Republic.

When I spoke with Ryan, he was making major changes to the site. He hopes soon to provide all of the originally promised features, allowing people to interact with the data. At first, this will be limited to posting links to other sites, uploading images, and writing in discussion forums associated with each entity.

Eventually the entities themselves, such as politicians, will also be able to give feedback using the site. Users will be able to monitor entities they have interest in, and get alerts and updates automatically.

America's Founders recognized the power of knowledge, especially that concerning politics and public officials. "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press..."

But no weapon has any power unless it is skillfully wielded, and Government Information Awareness places the blade in each of our hands.

To get to the site, visit http://www.opengov.us.

Other Related Sites:

http://www.theyrule.net/
A little like the GIA concept, only more visual. Create maps of top US companies, and see how their boards interlink.

http://www.opensecrets.org/
Track financial data about public figures, such as campaign contributions. To really learn what someone's about, follow the money!

http://www.vote-smart.org/ - View the biographical information, voting records, issue positions, interest group ratings, and campaign finances related to your favorite politicians.

http://www.openairwaves.org/telecom/
Find out what's up with the media nationally and locally – who owns and controls our information?

http://www.cjr.org/tools/owners/
More on the Media. Find out which major corporations own what newspapers and cable channels.