I was browsing through the congressional record — I paid for those bytes, dammit! — when the similarities to Digg, Reddit, and their ilk smacked me in the face:

• Popularity contest: Popular submitters fare better on social news (SN) sites, popular congressmen get more attention in Congress
• Low initial signal-to-noise ratio: Lots of crap gets submitted to SN sites, lots of crap gets introduced in Congress
• Voting: Stories on SN sites live and die by votes, and Congress — duh
• Categorization: SN sites have categories, Congress has committees
• Éminence grise: SN sites have admins, Congress has lobbyists

(This post is part of the 100/100/100 challenge)