New interactive site "Virtual Dome" is an online walk through the Capitol, complete with chatter

The Texas Legislature is a year away, as are the parties and hallway chatter and politically savvy downtown happy hour crowds and raucous floor debates. 

This is usually the time that junkies like me get antsy, having properly rested after the last one and being forced to wait an agonizingly long time until the next.

But logging on to a new interactive website-slash-social network, “Virtual Dome Texas,” which launched Thursday after several weeks of beta testing by users (including myself), I’m reminded of walking through the Capitol on a busting, feisty session day again. 

“As a person who has worked in and around the Texas State Capitol, I realized how much time we spend seeking out different information on various sites. Even then, there is no guarantee that the information we find is up to date and accurate,” said Christie Goodman, founder of Virtual Dome Texas, LLC, a former Capitol staffer and daughter of former state Rep. Toby Goodman of Arlington. 

“I wanted a site that would be a one-stop shop for current information and a place where those working around the Capitol could exchange ideas both under their name and anonymously.”

 The idea is a virtual walk through the halls of the Capitol, popping your head into offices and asking people what they think of issues. . .or if they’ve seen the latest interview with Newt Gingrich’s first ex-wife. 

The Austin-based Virtual Dome is a paid-subscription, non-partisan site that focuses on the Texas Legislature, providing members with live discussion forums, contact info for the legislative members and staff, calendars, a lobby directory, news and blog roundups. 

The idea is a virtual walk through the halls of the Capitol, popping your head into offices and asking people what they think of issues, or if they’ve seen the latest interview with Newt Gingrich’s first ex-wife, or why they’re planning to kill a bill, or where the parties are that night. 

Once you buy your $25/month subscription and log in, you can set up your profile: your picture, affiliation, favorite political quotes and wall postings (like a wonky Facebook.) 

Then you can start participating in the forums, which are kind of the cornerstone of the whole site. Participants can post as themselves or anonymously.

The most obvious use of the forums is gaging the reaction of the public and other lawmakers — what some would call crowd-sourcing — to a particular piece of proposed legislation. 

Another big piece of Virtual Dome are directories. Anyone who buys a subscription goes into a searchable database, with additional “lobbyist” and “staffer” directories.  The lawmakers are all registered and listed, whether they buy in or not.

For those of us who don’t work in the Capitol year-round, it’s nice to make a virtual visit to the pink dome from the desk — whether that’s at a home office in west Houston or in a district staffer’s cubicle in West Texas. 

And for those first-timers who are struck with enough civic passion to get engaged in the legislative process, the Virtual Dome helps demystify the Capitol — which is always a good thing.