By Tom Ryan, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel

The Missouri Government website has information related to lobbyists, lobby groups, funds contributed and to whom, and voting records of elected officials for citizens to view. What if we were able to map people with money with issues? What if we could create a narrative with this wealth of data?

The information is there, but a citizen has to build her own roadmap relating who gave to whom, from what cause. Citizens seem interested to know how these campaign and ongoing contributions affect policy. If we can quantify influence in terms of dollars, and the source influencer, can we see if that influence succeeded?

There are database savvy people out there perhaps building such a database. The lobbies certainly track their success with data but understandably their graphs and reports need not be reported. Our government has good reporting laws and the reports online reflect the statutes. Before anyone calls foul, one has to examine the information but it seems such a difficult task these days. How can we make sense of all of this?

An answer to this data dilemma could be a new form of journalism that combines software solutions and writing. Combine a journalists research curiosity and writing skills with not just a passion for the data but the ability to mine it and use it to tell a story.

We see examples often but not often enough. Pie charts may tell a funding story, for example. Line graphs show ups and downs. The paper and the screen sometimes limit the narrative to a two-dimensional picture of life.

Understanding the nature of influence has the multiple dimensions of time, funds, people, groups, issues, voting record, appropriations, to name a few. If we could combine the written story with the influence maps, that could tell a meaningful story of accountability and foster transparency…a more honest picture, because right now the picture appears very fuzzy.

We have ample paint, but each citizen has to paint her own picture, if she has the time.

Visit the Missouri Ethics Commission website http://www.moethics.mo.gov/ and have a look around.

For Kansas see: http://www.kansas.gov/ethics/