Beyond the Bite provides "actionable intelligence" about what members of Congress are doing and saying in a manner that is palatable not just to the hardcore activists who use most watchdog sites already, but to the casual audience to which most of us belong.

What do I mean by "actionable intelligence?"  First, let's talk about intelligence.

One problem with political discourse today is that quotations are often taken out of context, to the extent that citizens often assume that particularly egregious quotes they hear must be spun by political operatives or just plain inaccurate. This phenomenon makes it difficult for citizens to hold their politicians accountable. Beyond the Bite solves this problem by providing a reliable repository of quotations and soundbites surrounded by evidence, context, and analysis.  This is the intelligence.

We make that intelligence "actionable" by mashing up this data with related actions that users can take.  Beyond the Bite works off a principle I like to call "locality of outrage."  In a nutshell, my theory is that citizens are more likely to take actions on issues when they are presented with an opportunity right at the time of becoming outraged by a facet of the issue.

This combination of actions and intelligence is a potent force in transforming idle, impotent anger at an issue into constructive action towards a solution.

Beyond the Bite puts soundbites in context and allows concerned citizens to take this information and act on it immediately by tweeting, initiating a phone call, or taking another type of action.

Also, the app is open source, licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License (http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/agpl-3.0.html).  If you fork it, please do republish your changes to me, thanks!

In addition: I am a computer scientist with a great deal of experience in web applications and data analysis.  In addition, I worked in the Federal privacy sector for several years doing policy work, including the creation of privacy officer positions at agencies throughout the federal government.

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