Today, May 8th, marks the 125th birthday of Harry S Truman, our 33rd president. He once said, "Secrecy and a free, democratic government don't mix." Amen, Mr. President.

Here are a few of the more interesting media mentions of Sunlight and our friends and grantees from this week:

Monday morning, Tom Lee, a technology director at Sunlight, appeared on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” taking questions about Recovery.gov, the Web site set up to track spending under the federal government’s economic stimulus program. Tom is working on SubsidyScope, a project of The Pew Charitable Trusts, that looks at the role of federal subsidies in the economy. Below is the video of the segment:

Speaking of Recovery.gov, Matt Kelley with USA Today reported that the Web site won't have details on contracts and grants until October and may not be complete until next spring — halfway through the program. Kelley quotes Greg Elin, Sunlight’s chief evangelist, saying people accustomed to getting easily searchable information quickly could be frustrated. "If we have to wait until October to get the information or to the end of the year to get a powerful recovery.gov site, the Obama administration will have missed an important opportunity."

Katrina Vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation, in an op-ed titled "Ways to Protect Our Democracy," highlights the work of Sunlight and Sunlight Labs, and mentions the Apps for America contest. Vanden Heuvel quotes Gabriela Schneider, "This is the next generation of civic engagement…We see it as a way to revitalize democracy. The transparency work is a catalyst for the greater democracy reform movement."

The U.S. Senate announced this week that it was going to start publishing roll call votes in XML, an online format that’s easily reusable by other programs. XML allows the data to be manipulated and organized in such a way that public interest groups can get a much more thorough picture of Senate voting patterns. In writing about the move, the Politico’s  Victoria McGrane quoted John Wonderlich, Sunlight's policy director, as saying the Senate’s decision was “spectacular.” The Examiner newspapers editorialized that the move signals the Senate had finally joined the 21st Century. As encouraging and important as this step by the Senate is, I’d hold off on that designation until senators start disclosing campaign finance data online and in a timely manner.

The New York Times’ Stephanie Strom highlighted the campaign to get Congress to release to the public Congressional Research Service reports, highlighting the efforts of Open CRS, Center for Democracy and Technology, OpentheGovernment.org and Sunlight.

Jeanne Cummings at the Politico wrote about “lobbyist contact” disclosures posted on government department and agency Web sites. She made note of a review conducted by Paul Blumenthal, Sunlight’s senior writer, that found only 14 of a possible 29 departments and agencies have created Web pages to disclose lobbyist inquiries. On March 20, President Obama issued a memo to all agencies involved with the distribution of funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act requiring them to disclose all communications between lobbyists and agency officials. John Fritze with USA Today wrote that Obama’s effort to make lobbying more transparent has shed little light on the behind-the-scenes, special-interests lobbying thus far. He quotes Melanie Sloan, director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, "We're looking to have more disclosure, not less. If this was supposed to give us more disclosure, why is it that you're not seeing lobbyist communications?"

Mother Jones' Jonathan Stein profiled Lisa Rosenberg, Sunlight’s government affairs consultant, terming her "K Street's worst nightmare" and "the lobbyist lobbyists hate." He wrote that Lisa is "not your average influence peddler," but does the "unthinkable" by lobbying for more oversight and regulation of lobbying. Stein quotes Lisa, "I have no friends...My lobbyist colleagues are cringing at the things that I do."

Joshua Zumbrun at Forbes.com wrote about six ways Uncle Sam can help rescue newspapers. One of his proposals is for the government to help ease newspapers into nonprofit status, citing the Center for Responsive Politics and the Center for Public Integrity as examples of nonprofit organizations that are already making an impact.

Thanks, and see you next Friday!

Here are a few of the more interesting media mentions of Sunlight and our friends and grantees from this week:

Sunday evening, BlogTalkRadio posted an episode of “Talking Gov2.0,” where Clay Johnson, Sunlight Lab’s director, discussed Sunlight, Sunlight Labs and the Apps for America contest. Speaking of Apps for America, Clay announced the winners on Monday. And Marshall Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb wrote about the contest, and included a screencast of the winners.

Victoria McGrane with the Politico wrote about the lack of online disclosure of campaign finance data by candidates for the U.S. Senate, and the efforts to rectify this through S. 482, the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act. She mention’s Sunlight’s Pass S. 482, and extensively quotes Lisa Ronsenberg, Sunlight’s government affairs consultant, about the need for the Senate to join the 21st Century.

The National Journal reported on data from the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) that shows last year’s top 20 Political Action Committee contributors to federal candidates poured a combined $22 million into lobbying efforts from January through March -- an increase of nearly 20 percent over the same period in 2008.

Anne C. Mulkern with Greenwire (subscription required) used Capitol Words to look at the use of energy- and environment-related words by congressional lawmakers. The New York Times re-posted Mulkern's piece.

CongressDaily’s Carrie Dann reported (subscription required) on a new study conducted by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) that shows short-term lenders have dramatically increased their spending on lobbying and campaign contributions since 2004. The industry is trying to defeat a bill that would cap annual interest rates on consumer loans at 36 percent. The Los Angeles Times used CRP data in reporting that Sen. Christopher Dodd (Conn.), the chair of the Senate Banking Committee, has received over $44,000 from the industry in the first quarter of this year. The Times quoted Sheila Krumholz, CRP’s director, saying that it’s hardly surprising that payday lenders would be contributing heavy to Dodd now.

The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reported on a recently-updated Federal Contractor Misconduct Database by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) that shows Lockheed Martin Corp., the nation’s largest defense contractor, is the number one offender. The group found Lockheed linked to 50 cases of civil, criminal or administrative misconduct since 1995.

Steve Coll at The New Yorker wrote about following the stimulus funding. “Like ornithology, it turns out that stimulus watching involves a larger, more passionate subculture than might initially be expected,” Coll wrote. He highlighted OMB Watch’s budget-and-tax-policy section that “often produces wonky stimulus-related tracking.”

The May edition of the Washingtonian magazine will include a feature on the Washington, D.C., region’s technology leaders, dubbing them “Tech Titans.” The feature will include Ellen Miller, Sunlight’s executive director, as one of the region’s tech leaders. The magazine’s Web site includes a video with several short statements by the tech leaders featured, including Ellen discussing her favorite gadgets and using technology to bring government transparency.

Bara Vaida at National Journal's "Under the Influence" highlighted a blog post by Nancy Watzman, Sunlight's Denver-based consultant, about the 170 fundraising invitations for 2009 events the Party Time campaign has collected so far.

National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" aired the first of a two-part story by Andrea Seabrook on the federal government's data being opened up via technology. The first part aired Thursday, and it centered on Recovery.gov, the Obama administration's site that's tracking spending by the economic stimulus plan. For the piece, Seabrook interviewed Ellen, Clay, Greg Elan, Sunlight evangelist, and Andrew Rasiej, Sunlight technology advisor. Seabrook has lead us to believe the second installment, which is scheduled to air during this afternoon’s edition of “All Things Considered,” will center more on the work of Sunlight. The program begins at 4:00 pm (Eastern Time).

Update: Seabrook's second installment can be seen and listened to here.

Thanks, and see you next week!

TransparencyCamp was awesome, but rather than my just writing about just how great it was -- what we all learned, heard, and what we will do about it --  I thought you ought to hear from the crowd itself. So I've randomly selected tweets from the some who attended, and some who didn't who talk about the event and some of what they learned. Here's just a sample of what folks had to say:

justgrimes: I wish transparency camp was monthly; maybe we could do something like CopyNight, a monthly social gathering http://bit.ly/sz4p5 (expand) #tcamp09

Jillfoster: Good to be here at #tcamp09

robertdoyal: Reading a lot of great tweets from #tcamp09. It feels as if I'm there! Transparency is a top priority for Texas Comptroller Susan Combs.

quepol: @Rasiej TransparencyCamp: transformational, connective, invigorating #tcamp09

Tcamp09: RT: @merici transparency camp community resources: transparencycamp.org/community #tcamp09

johnbreslin: Seeing lots of interesting posts from #tcamp09 - http://tinyurl.com/b7t9hp (expand) and @valdiskrebs is speaking...

kmcurry: I haven't been able to tweet out of #tcamp09 b/c too in the moment of the conversation; will have to brain dump later

sitting side by side w/ passionate govies plotting improvements #tcamp09

sharontb: Will transparency and recovery.gov be the stimulus for the next revolution in business, it and world? How fast will it happen? #tcamp09

uigimontanez: This #tcamp09 session really helped me see the practical aspects of the Semantic Web. No longer just theoretical...

jroo: #tcamp09 show us the data! (and we'll give you a beer)

justgrimes: One thing I've learned during transparency camp is the policy problems with procurement, it comes up almost everything session #tcamp09

joebird: Catching the tweets but wishing I was at Transparency Camp in D.C.: https://barcamp.pbwiki.com/transparencycamp | #tcamp09

DavidStephenson: #tcamp09 oops: will have to spend next 2 wks. learning about all apps @chrismessina has mentioned

atomiota: learning about the components of the social web from citizen agency/diso's chris messina. i like when things get broken down for me #tcamp09

corbett3000: @brianbehlendorf: Hill staffers just shown version tracking at http://opencongress.org & http://govtrack.us; "blew their minds" #tcamp09

bashley: Transparency too often conflated as gov visibility. But transparency demands no less than full-frontal gov nudity. #tcamp09

kpkfusion: It is the citizen exchange "in network" that creates transparency - not the mere act of publication and search. #tcamp09

jedmiller: RT @bashley: Transparency is zero without compassion, surrender, confession, humility. Opacity is all too human. #tcamp09

Silona: this crowd has more EEEPC and netbooks than I have even seen before... #tcamp09

laurelatoreilly: Apps for Democracy: This is what democracy looks like! Check out Apps for America competition (http://bit.ly/HoeTx (expand)) #tcamp09

javaun: I wish I could've joined all of you at #tcamp09 . Wife went into labor Thursday night and our daughter was born Friday at 7.

sliqviq: Information and transparency helps alleviate unaccountable power structures standing in the way of change #tcamp09

sarahebourne: Wishing I were in DC for Transparency Camp #tcamp09 but glad I can follow on Twitter + that I won't have to travel in snowstorm to get back

brianbehlendorf: #tcamp09 @cjoh Transparency is a neutralizer of apathy. [brilliant]

craignewmark: Home after Washington; listening to the rain, and over the drops dropping; a robin sings. (not #tcamp09)

Tcamp09: #tcamp09 sticker postcards didn't arrive in time. We would love to mail you some... just ask! http://transparencycamp.org/stickers/

cheeky_geeky: Already saw @davidstephenson @valdiskrebs @leslieann44 @peteodell @ellnmllr @clayjohnson at #tcamp09

GregElin: #tcamp09 wrapping up. It was an amazing event, awesome people, conversations.

rmfretz: Thanks to all that put this together #tcamp09

bashley: Gratitude to #tcamp09 organizers, presenters, tweeters. You kept a Nova Scotian entertained, informed!

stereogab: Personally thrilled abt excitement, new ideas, knowledge sharing, connections being made to open gov, make info usable, efficient #tcamp09

Mlsif: RT @merici: RT @cjoh: @stereogab for MVP of TransparencyCamp. Truly the unsung hero of this event. #tcamp09

A week ago, I blogged about the launch of the Coalition for an Accountable Recovery (CAR). The coalition (of which Sunlight is a member) formed to promote accountability for the  federal government agencies doling out the trillions of dollars, for the states and for the companies that benefit from recovery funds. CAR’s vision for a national system to collect and disseminate data on government spending is here (pdf).

It's worth delving into that document. Its bottom line: CAR is calling for online reporting that allows the public to easily search, sort, track and download data on the use of funds from the massive Stimulus Bill.

The document proposes  USASpending.gov, the federal Web site that discloses information about nearly all government spending, as the "data house" for the Recovery Act (and other government) spending. But as Greg Elin, Sunlight’s chief evangelist, in a comment to my blog, wrote,  that might not be enough: “Spending from the Stimulus package will show up in USASpending.gov, but only at the federal contract level.”

Clearly a system needs to be in place to track the spending and all of its impacts. We should be able to know what’s happening with the money at all levels and all stages. Thus far, Congress has been far too vague about what it expects the online sites to provide. And we want to make sure we end up with a system that provides the most transparency and accountability as possible.

Be sure to check CAR.

Doc Searls, author and Senior Editor of the blog Linux Journal, interviews Sunlight's Greg Elin in an article about open source in politics and government. Here are the choice parts from Greg describing Sunlight's work, the data that backs it up, and the future of it all:

Almost all of our projects and funded projects are open source -- though sometimes our code is a bit hacked so it takes a while to release it. Nearly every group I know is completely invested in open source: MySQL, PostgreSQL, Apache... The frameworks are being rapidly adopted: Rails, Django, Symfony...

The work I'm most interested in these days is dynamic-scripting -- what I think about as "flow-and-go" data sets instead of what Jeff Jonas coined as "rack-and-stack" data sets. Dynamic scripting is Unix pipes! That is, every application does input and output. We leave the world of databases-make-reports and enter the world of RSS-flows-in and RSS-flows-out.

Two examples of flow. A Sunlight database, LouisDB.com, scrapes the Congressional Daily Record daily, transforming it into XML. Garrett Schure (Sunlight Labs developer) and Josh Ruihley did a word count algorithm on the Congressional Record to come up with Congress' "Word of the Day" and the microsite http://capitolwords.org — which goes back to 2001 and has an RSS feed, API, and a widget people can put on their site. Louisdb.com makes it easier to search the Congressional Record — and now there's a script boiling it down into tweetable content that others can use, too. Second example, from MySociety: TheyWorkForYou. It provides profiles of what Members are doing in Parliament by parsing the Parliament's daily record and votes. Lastly, many sites rely on the work of Josh Tauber's http://govtrack.us b/c. Josh scrapes all sorts of data on bills in Congress and transforms it into XML. Josh's data is open and so also is his code. It's a tremendous contribution. ... Programmers and technologists who grew up with the web and with open source have been entering the political and e-government arena the past several years bringing with them the tools and practices of open source and Web 2.0. They are collaborating with -- and sometimes competing with -- existing technologists who were often activists who learned spreadsheets and databases and desktop publishing and then the web to communicate their message. So we are seeing a geek-i-fication of everything from campaigns to good government groups to government itself. More open source. More frameworks. More collaborative communication among individual developers. It's uneven, it's bumpy, but it is definitely happening. The tipping point has occurred now in politics and government -- the question remains only where the tree is going to land.