Seth Godin, the prolific author and blogger, recently asked a collection of contemporary thinkers to contribute to a project on a word they feel should carry significance in our lives. The anthology of short essays, entitled ‘What Matters Now‘, is freely available as an e-book to download and share.  The collaboration serves as a thought-provoking and inspirational read to begin 2010.

Among the more than seventy authors, the book includes two members of the Sunlight community.  Micah Sifry, co-founder of the Personal Democracy Forum and Sunlight Foundation adviser, wrote an inspirational piece on the word ‘Nobody‘ about the power of the motivated few.  Clay Johnson, director of Sunlight Labs, chose the word ‘Parsing‘ and considers the possibilities of accessible government information.  Here is an excerpt from Clay’s thoughts:

It is time for us to rationalize the debate.  Let’s parse the data and free the facts.

Imagine if we organized around meaningful data instead of vapid rhetoric.   What if you could see how much you spent on your commute to work this year, or defending your country, or keeping your neighbor healthy.