Our elected officials can now Skype.
In technology terms, Skype’s been around forever — since 2003 to be exact.
It’s now 2011 and finally after years of debate, you’ll be able to Skype your representative in Congress.
Congressman Dennis Ross representing Florida’s District 12 in Polk County became one of the first in House history to Skype.
He spoke about the possibilities of the technology.
“If you ever had an issue that had involved a federal agency and you have members of Congress all over the country that weren’t at Washington D.C. you can hold that hearing with everybody,” said Ross via Skype. “To participate one-on-one looking at each other and I think frankly the technology is only going to get better.”
This also means people can expect more accountable lawmakers.
“We would make arrangements–you know–through our office and schedule a time to do it with the constituent,” he explained how it’s going to work. “But just as important because behind me is a tremendous staff and this staff really gets into the weeds on issues…Skype could be used with them as well.”
Although, the Republican who’s already communicating on YouTube, updates on Twitter and now can be reached via Skype, said these tools are only supplemental.
He believes members of Congress first and foremost have to show up in person to meetings, district visits, and other events on the agenda.
That’ll ensure Skype is used safely for official business.
“Anything that we have can be abused as we’ve seen that with other members of Congress in the past,” Ross said. “You know the best lesson here is if you don’t ever want to see it happen, don’t do the action.”
Another possibility for the use of Skype, lawmakers can participate in video town hall meetings whenever a they can’t leave the nation’s capital because there’s a hotly debated issue on the House floor.
Each congressional office will have access to Skype with one “Skype Manager” who will take care of all the accounts for that office.
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