Good news and Bad news from Data.gov
Looks like Data.gov has added a whole bunch of new feeds, they're up from 47 to 87 in two weeks, not a bad start. Most of the new feeds come from the IRS, they look to be interesting data: 990 forms from 501(c)(3-9) organizations.
That's the good news.
The bad news? It's pretty bad so hold on to your britches.
Continue readingUs: Transparency, Them: Collaboration
Today, the White House, via the Office of Science and Technology Policy released the Government "Conversation on Collaboration" that they've been having since February, in conjuction with the public Open Government Dialogue. This conversation happened on OMBMax wiki, a wiki powered by the Office of Management and Budget.
So after our analysis on Friday of The Open Government Dialogue this gives us the opportunity to make a comparison-- what are people inside the government saying vs. the general public?
Now we can see what people are saying inside the government and outside the government. I went ahead and used the rest of Sunlight's "word cloud" credit on creating a new word cloud of what people are saying on the inside, so we could put it next to one on the outside. Here it is:
Continue readingThe Open Government Brainstorm
The Open Government Brainstorm is wrapping up, and a lot of people had a lot to say. Over 1000 ideas... View Article
Continue readingWhat I’d Change about Data.gov
I think Data.gov is pretty awesome. So let me couch my sensational headline with the fact that I'm generally a fan of what Vivek Kundra & Team are trying to do inside of the federal government to make the our country more transparent. Heck, we're so excited about it we're doing our own contest with cash prizes to celebrate.
But I do have a few gripes. So in the interest of full transparency, and the hopes that this will create change, here are my gripes for all to see:
Continue readingKeeping an Eye on Data.gov
One thing that's curiously missing from Data.gov is an RSS feed for new data feeds. Sort of shockingly, and glaringly left out. We were disappointed, and didn't want to wait. Scraping here is such an easy thing to do that we decided to just build our own. Sunlight Labs' James Turk did it, and it's handy. Here's the feed and here's the source that makes the feed. This should be useful to anyone who wants to see what new stuff is coming out of Data.gov.
Continue readingEverything We Know About Data.gov
Everything you wanted to know about Data.gov
Now that Data.gov's out, I thought I'd take a look under the hood and see what's in there, what's missing, and try and figure out what's coming.
First off searching through twitter for the phrase "Data.gov congratulations" I'm able to get enough evidence that hmiller23 and Jerad Speigel of the Phase One Consulting Group built the site. I asked them on Twitter, and they said "It Uses LAMP"
Right now the site is short on data. Federal CIOs: There are hundreds of us waiting to do interesting things with your data. Invest in putting it up on Data.gov now. You will be rewarded.
Right now the breakdown of the files looks like this:
Continue readingApps for America 2: The Data.gov Challenge
Announcing Apps for America 2: The Data.gov Challenge
We've been planning this for awhile. Ever since we heard about Data.gov we have been planning a contest, and if you're reading this blog post, that means Data.gov has finally launched.
I'm pleased to wave the green flag on Apps for America 2: The Data.gov Challenge. This is a development and visualization challenge to see who can come up with the best application and visualization for data from Data.gov.
These are exciting times for us-- the walls between Government and Developers are starting to shrink, and we here in Sunlight Labs are terribly excited to get to work on doing great things with the data that's coming out. Government has made a move in the right direction-- now it is time for us to show them what we can do.
We're happy to launch Apps for America 2, this time with support from our friends. Google's put in some prize money, as has Craig Newmark, the founder of Craig's list. O'Reilly and Techweb have provided another wonderful incentive: tickets and table space to Gov2.0 summit for the winners.
Finally, we think that in building this community of technical talent, that we need not only developers but also talented and creative artists and visualizers. So we've created a special bonus "visualization and design" prize that will hopefully bring new ideas and talent to the table.
Take a look at our Apps for America 2 page for all the rules and details. This is going to be the best Apps for America yet.
Please, spread the word far and wide! This is the technical community's first and best chance to show our federal government the kind of talent and creativity that we all have, and more importantly to show it what happens when it engages the technical community.
Let the Games Begin.
Continue readingAnnouncing Apps for America 2: The Data.gov Challenge
We've been planning this for awhile. Ever since we heard about Data.gov we have been planning a contest, and if you're reading this blog post, that means Data.gov has finally launched.
I'm pleased to wave the green flag on Apps for America 2: The Data.gov Challenge.
Continue reading2 Easy Wins for your Congressional Website
2 Easy wins for your Congressional Website
Lots of members of congress are busily updating their website. It seems these days that we're getting lots of brilliantly designed congressional websites as the innovation in design from the campaigns trickles ever so slowly into government.
If you're helping to build your Member of Congress' website, I'd like to ask you to do two things:
Continue readingMy Talk at Web2.0 Expo
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