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Sounds like the pleasant dreams of reformer types—except that these guys are serious enough about it to have logged hundreds of hours producing cloutwiki.org, a new reference site that offers political bios and connecting links for dozens of local politicians.
The two put together a team of journalists and political activists who over the last few months compiled an assortment of facts about Chicago aldermen, Cook County board commissioners, and area congressmen. The site, just launched, is still “a work in progress,” by Deratany’s own admission (or a “labor of masochism,” by Fourcher’s). Only a handful of the entries about county board members are complete, for instance, but Fourcher and Deratany say they’re planning to fill in the blanks—and expand the site’s reach—with input from readers. “We can’t wait for people to start checking our facts,” Fourcher says. But unlike, say, wikipedia, the content on the site will be controlled pretty carefully. Submissions and suggestions are welcome, but the entries won’t be open for public editing.
