The website is arranged so that basic information can be easily accessed. Each state page has a governor's state link at the top, followed by senators and representatives. Committee information is also included along with their official website, and an outside wikipedia link. Here's an example:

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman Independent 1989 - present Issues: Committees: Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Chair Armed Services - AirLand, Chair - Seapower - Personnel Environment and Public Works - Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection, Chair - Clean Air and Nuclear Safety - Public Sector Solutions to Global Warming, Oversight and Children’s Health protection Small Business and Entrepreneurship http://lieberman.senate.gov/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lieberman

The representative's name, party, and years of service are at the top. Issues: Is currently not linked, but will link to the subject matter of the issues of the videos within the site. If the Congress person is the chairman of a committee, his or her box will be shaded, as this example is shaded. Committee links will lead to the full committee. As videos are submitted and embedded, a video from a constituent will appear on the right hand side of the representative. As more questions and videos are sent in, each representative will have his or her own page of video questions / interviews.

This project is being created by an independent filmmaker. Keya Lea Horiuchi has spent most of her career as an educator, teaching on the Navajo Indian Reservation in New Mexico, on the western slope of Colorado and in Denver.

She has been making a transition into the world of visual production, distribution, web design and web video. She previously spent four months traveling in ten countries shooting a documentary about how the rest of the world views the United States and how policies differ and compare. She is the producer, director, editor, cinematographer and narrator for Considering Democracy: 8 Things to Ask Your Representative.

Here's some of the background and philosophy behind the Hello Policy Maker Project. Feel free to also visit the blog.

This project stems from my experience traveling across the country screening my documentary Considering Democracy: 8 Things to Ask Your Representative.   As I toured with the film before the elections in 2008, people across the United States in both small communities and large cities across the country expressed a strikingly similar frustration with a lack of voice within our representative democracy. 

The overall methods and means of communication have also undeniably changed.  For the past 100 years or so, when people had a political concern, they wrote a letter. Many people said that while they continue to write letters to their representatives, they seldom get a response that indicates that their letter was read.  While letter-writing remains a decent method of private communication, it has some pitfalls.  Currently, many people find it quite frustrating to take the time to write a letter, send the letter, then receive a form letter a few weeks later that addresses a totally different issue.  In the 21st century, however, we have the tools to bypass this growing societal frustration.  While driving between the screenings (over 17,000 miles) it occurred to me that a website could be structured to allow national, visual-based communication to occur.

This website sets up a visual, web based structure that shares political information and concerns with others across the country. Just as a classroom environment can be set up so that views and can be expressed and respected, a similar environment will be set up here.   See submission guidelines.

Other societal factors have created divisions.  Actions harbored within previous administrations and within the media conglomerates have also discouraged political conversation.   For almost a decade, there has been a nationwide climate wherein it has been looked upon as unpatriotic to ask questions, so while we have had the tools to communicate, that ability has not been adequately harnessed nor was there a structure to allow political communication in a neutral space.  Simultaneously, a larger portion of the American news/entertainment media has moved away from investigative reporting and assumed a stance of demonizing the political opposition, (which ever side that may be, the reality exists that they both are startlingly similar). This environment has also contributed to a climate of fear and a lack of meaningful political conversation between differing viewpoints.  There is a noticeable level of hostility between people who have different views when opinions are voiced in public and social situations, and is also evidenced on the internet.  Thus, polarization and a lack of a flow of information is in existence, oddly, within the ‘information age’.  Yet the government itself, as the representative of the People has not done an adequate job of offering valuable information to the public, furthering society division.

It is also oddly difficult to get basic information from government websites.  In order to get state based Congressional information, one needs to visit two different websites for both the Senate and the House.  They have different web designers, so similar information can be in different places.  I looked for my state Congressional information on both websites, then tried to also find committee information.  This was also difficult to find on Congressional websites, because it could be under “About Me”, “Legislative Work”, or in the “Biography” section, but sometimes is not included.  Then in order to find cabinet members, a different website, needs to be sifted through.  This website seeks to simplify this process of getting this basic information by presenting information by the three branches of government, by state and by issue.   

Thank you for taking a look. Please do submit!