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January 22, 2009 4:00 AM PST

'Washington Post' launches database of political who's whos

by Rafe Needleman

The Washington Post today is launching Who Runs Gov, a site primarily made up of a database of personalities in the United States government. If you're looking for info on your state's senator or representative, or details about a cabinet or high-ranking military official, it looks like the site could be a valuable resource.

Who Runs Gov profile pages are consistent and useful.

Who Runs Gov is a wiki, powered by MindTouch. Registered users can edit the pages, but changes don't go live until the site's staffers approve the edits. Also, subjects of Who Runs Gov profile pages (or their staff) will be able to submit their own profile information for inclusion on pages about them, a fundamental difference from Wikipedia, where you're not supposed to write about yourself.

As on other wikis, users can easily check out the edits and revisions that have been made to any page.

In a quick side-by-side comparison with competitor Wikipedia, I found Who Runs Gov far more consistent and predictable, although--so far--lacking the diversity of viewpoints that makes it into many Wikipedia entries.

Rafe Needleman writes about start-ups, new technologies, and Web 2.0 products, as editor of CNET's Webware. E-mail Rafe.
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by Aaron_Fulkerson January 22, 2009 7:15 AM PST
Well, this goes significantly beyond "wiki" of course. It has integrating blogging, contextually relevant news aggregation from WashingtonPost.com and also by way of Google News. Moreover, the sophisticated site navigation is dynamically generated and updated based on the content. More on the capabilities and site focus can be found here: http://www.mindtouch.com/Press_Room/Press_Releases/Whorunsgov.com
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by SarahCarr January 22, 2009 11:50 AM PST
Thanks for the mention of WhoRunsGov.com and MindTouch Deki - we're excited to have been able to participate in this next-generation community. More information on WhoRunsGov technology and capabilities can be found here: http://cli.gs/Gov
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by tigranolya January 23, 2009 3:25 AM PST
very interesting.
WhoRunsGov database hacked.
Learn more visit to http://ezinearticles.com/?Web-Site-Traffic---Secrets-to-Increase-Web-Site-Traffic&id=1767974
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