I've been thinking a lot lately about how technology can provide transparency to the political process. Among these ideas have been "reading aides" like this: tools that will provide verification and context for what you're reading or watching.

Another such tool I've been thinking about would show you the relationship of the writer and quoted sources (people or institutions) to the material being covered.

For example, consider the case where spokesperson for a non-profit organization is quoted defending a particular industry. This tool might tell you that this person was once an executive at a for-profit corporation in that industry or have some other non-obvious relationship.

If anyone knows of anyone working on something like this, I'd love to learn about it.