Barack Obama recently made headlines by telling a crowd of supporters that not all of the nation's ills were the fault of Bush and the current administration. The fix isn't simply to replace Republicans with Democrats, he says, but we must repair the system.

"We can't just change political parties and continue to do the same kind of things we've been doing. We can't just go about business as usual and think it's going to turn out differently.

We've got to make sure workers are represented, not just CEOs. We've got to make sure patients are represented and the nurses are represented, not just drug companies."

How does he propose we do this? By involving average Americans more in the political process. In terms of rhetoric, this is nothing new, but some of his actual proposals are. He wants to take the American government online and use the Internet to promote an "open government." Some of his specific policy ideas include:

• Posting all non-emergency bills online for five days before signing them into law, allowing Americans a chance to weigh in on the legislation.
• Requiring Cabinet officials to speak to Americans via national broadband town-hall style meetings to discuss issues at their agencies.
• Creating a Google-like search engine that will allow regular people to track approximately $1 trillion in federal grants, contracts, earmarks and loans online (he's actually already accomplished this one).

This is refreshing to hear after years of increased government secrecy and little accountability. But what's more important than his attitude is his willingness to embrace the Internet as an accountability tool. He wants to go beyond providing government information online, and wants to "employ all the technological tools available to allow average citizens not just to observe, but to participate and be heard on the issues that affect their daily lives."

Obama's proposals have only scratched the surface of possibilities for opening up the government and increasing citizen participation. The British Prime Minister's office, for example, already embraces web-based interaction and hosts online chats where citizens can ask cabinet members questions and offer feedback.

It's hard to say where else this merger between Web 2.0-style user interaction and government will go, but it shows promise and I hope the trend continues, regardless of who wins the election.