What would a 21st century town hall meeting look like? Is there a better way to hold public meetings than to give each person three minutes at a microphone to have their say? The city of Bell, California, might have some of the answers.
Continue readingLearning how to navigate Congress.gov
The new and much improved location for Congressional information, beta.congress.gov, has plenty of resources to offer users. Now the Library of Congress (LOC) is offering webinars and in-person training to help users navigate the expanding website. We applaud LOC for providing a variety of training opportunities for those seeking a better understanding of the information available.
Continue readingProtests to police action, Bell city officials arrested
If you’re not familiar with the shocking story of Bell, a Los Angeles suburb, here’s a quick overview. Due to... View Article
Continue readingAsk the question about transparency that you’ve always wanted
Ever get tired of hearing pundits ask softball questions to politicians? Or finally hear a really great question, only to have it answered in a few TV friendly, pre-packaged bullet points that don’t tell you anything you didn’t already know? Thanks to the work of our friends at Personal Democracy Forum, we don’t have to accept this one way channel of communication. With 10Questions.com, every American can be a part of the conversation with those running for office this election season.
Continue readingStatelight: Transparency in a Box, Pt. 3
As we set the stage for advocating on local and state transparency issues and highlight some policies issues of note,... View Article
Continue readingCity of Bell and the Case for Grassroots Transparency
I’m proud to present this independent research project by our summer intern Mike Liu. Mike looked at his home state... View Article
Continue readingStatelight: Transparency in a Box, Pt. 1
I’m excited to announce a new project from Public Equals Online and the Sunlight Foundation: Over the next few weeks and months, we’ll be developing - in large part through public blog posts such as this one - a curriculum, or guide, on how to do state level organizing and advocacy around transparency and open government.
Continue readingEarmark no-brainer
The Earmark Transparency Act has been introduced in both the House and Senate, but it needs co-sponsors to move forward. It's time that we tell Congress that we want to know how our money is being used, and thank those representatives that are working to build a more transparent government.
Continue readingRethinking Advocacy Email
Email is an incredible tool for many things, but it's also *not* a very good way to communicate for much of what we tend to use it for. And on top of that, we all just get so darned many! Reading email often seems more a nuisance than an opportunity to many (most?) people. And that's a shame. In fact, it's an outright "problem" if your job is to engage both current and potential supporters in your cause, because email is still considered the primary outreach channel for most organizations.
Continue readingThe Caribou Coffee Lobby
I love coffee, espeicially when I get to use my smart coffee mug (more on that in this Inc article).... View Article
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