Between 2010 and 2013 the Texas Senate Committee on Business and Commerce under Senator John Carona, Chair:
- Identified distinct audiences for any hearing
- Developed a looping video introduction for legislative hearings
- Established a weblog (blog)
- Created the first state legislative committee mobile app in the country
- Made the app open source and posted the code on Sourceforge
- Debuted the use of live geospatial data in a legislative hearing
- Used Twitter to extend the reach of committee notices
- Created a hearing witness time-stamp with Twitter
- Accomplished an instant public feedback loop using Twitter
- Tested a subject-matter Wiki for consumer information and as a component of crowdsourced legislation
- Shared tips online for how to prepare testimony
- Made articles about committee business easily accessible via Pinterest
- Demonstrated the ability to make state data open using interactive maps
- Provided blog space and served as a model for other committees
- Gave users anonymous opt-in ability to emails
- Live-blogged hearings
- Achieved fully transparent (if a legislator sees it, you see it) hearings
- Included links to additional information in formal postings
- Conducted paperless hearings
- Included QR codes on publications
- Opened virtual storefronts
- Used Facebook to gauge interest in certain issues
- Included remote testimony in a hearing
- Developed a concept for a multiple-location interactive hearing
- Saved taxpayers thousands of dollars.