Bid to open debt reduction committee proceedings

Some members of Congress are worried that the recently appointed debt reduction committee will make its decisions behind closed doors. In the agreement establishing the committee, there were no provisions for public meetings, hearings or lobbying disclosures. Other open government advocates are calling for the proceedings to be telecast or webcast. -db From CNNMoney, August [...]

You’ve Got Sarah’s Mail! And other cool tools from Sunlight Foundation

Following the hit they had with Elana’s Inbox, which made Supreme Court justice Elana Kagan’s email searchable online, the Sunlight Foundation this week introduced Sarah’s Inbox: “Sarah’s Inbox allows users to view the more than 14,000 emails from Sarah Palin’s tenure as Governor of Alaska with familiar sorting functions. You can go page by page [...]

Poll: Public needs more from open government initiative

A recent poll found that the general public wants greater access in the way of  online postings from local state and federal governments. Only 23.8 percent of governments have launched a data site. -db The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press January 5, 2011 By Christine Beckett Online access to government data is not [...]

Freedom of Information Act requests down in 2009

The Obama administration attributes a significant drop in FOIA requests in 2009 to their efforts to post more government data online. But a recent report said that less than a third of federal agencies had changed their FOIA procedures since his first day in office when President Obama ordered them to “adopt a presumption in [...]

Lobbyists not registering to avoid stricter rules

In a reaction to strict new Congressional regulations, in increasing numbers, advocates are not registering as lobbyists making it harder to track the effect of campaign contributions and meetings with public officials. -DB The New York Times January 18, 2010 By David D. Kirkpatrick WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ellen Miller, co-founder of the Sunlight Foundation, has spent [...]

Sponsor for open government conference criticized for shortfalls in its software’s transparency

The Sunlight Foundation criticized Adobe for only publishing budget summary tables in PDF saying that that format prevents manipulation of data for adequate analysis. Adobe said it would keep PDF since in some cases it expedited access to information but wanted to present information in other useful formats as well if the government would support those [...]

Help available for government watchdogs

Citizens and organizations seeking information about the relationships between officials, corporations and policy makers can tap into a myriad of resources. Here is a description of ten of the most helpful watchdog projects. -DB MediaShift November 3, 2009 By Katie Donnelly With the 2010 U.S. elections coming into view, many people are looking for more [...]