Keep reading for today’s look at #OpenGov news, events and analysis including fighting big money to fight big money, open data training, and open government plans.  

National News

• The Virgin Island’s Republican Committee is using interesting tactics to raise money that they then spend on raising more money. The organization from the small Caribbean Island uses the specter of Hillary Clinton and very judicious mentions of their own name to raise money from mainlanders. (New York Times)
• The Mayday PAC, set up to fight the influence of big money in politics, has raised a lot of money from small donors…but it has also raised more than $1 million (and hopes to raise at least $5 million more) from a few large donors. The large donors, many of them tech entrepreneurs, are matching funds raised in smaller chunks. (Roll Call)
• Federal agencies are supposed to submit their 3rd Open Government Plans this week and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, one of the offices coordinating the effort, was no different. They released their plan earlier this week. (Executive Government)

International News

• Philippine government officials learned how to move beyond merely setting up an open data portal at a week long session led by Open Data Philippines, Open Knowledge Foundation, and the World Bank. The training focused on data skills required to ensure that the open data continues to be useful and utilized. (FutureGov)
• Kosovo is electing a new parliament this weekend and the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society is experimenting with a new way for citizens to monitor the electoral process. The text message based system, created with help from a variety of businesses interested in stable government, allows citizens to anonymously report incidents. (Open Society Foundations)

State and Local News

• The recent National Association of State CIO’s report on open data progress on the state level explains a more mature approach that governments can take to opening their data that includes some useful and some questionable recommendations. (Diginomica)

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