.gov web sites should focus on RSS

Ars points to a paper that argues “Rather than struggling, as it currently does, to design sites that meet each end-user need, we argue that the executive branch should focus on creating a simple, reliable and publicly accessible infrastructure that exposes the underlying data.”

I’m not as sure I agree with the part about pushing websites off to private entities (this sounds sort of like the function of the press), but timely feeds from the government should be a priority. The passage of laws and other rules can be very time-sensitive, and for the press/bloggers/academics/public to know just what the government is doing, adding a few feeds of interest would be an ideal way to stay in the loop.

This could become a hyper-transparent government (if the public is constantly giving feedback), but keeping an eye on things might be worth the cost of slowing some things down.