As stated in the note from the Sunlight Foundation′s Board Chair, as of September 2020 the Sunlight Foundation is no longer active. This site is maintained as a static archive only.

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Blocking Opaquely

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Ethan Zuckerman has an important post about the growing global governmental blocking of online content, discussing recent blog-blocking by India: He writes:

That India is blocking any sites is disappointing. I’d like to see all governments - my own included - block only as an absolute last resort, and as a way to prevent access to content that’s clearly illegal, like child pornography. And I think it’s critical that governments who do block the Internet do so in a way that’s transparent, posting a page that makes it clear that a site has been blocked, offering an appeals process and makng it clear that the page isn’t inaccessible due to technical errors.... blocking blogs is a slippery slope. Blocking opaquely makes it even more slippery.

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Whimsical questions about FOIA

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Is there any website that collects FOIA requests made by agencies and individuals? Could the Government make public the FOIA requests made on its website? Public and searchable? I'm fumbling for the right question, but there's a large sense in which it seems that much of FOIA should not be necessary in an internet age, as so much of what is sought should be findable by default - online, searchable - and in the meantime I'd love to see a catalog of what is requested.

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Seeking volunteers

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I'm looking for volunteers to volunteer to be test-volunteers for our new community site, coming soon (where people can profile themselves, search by interest area (i.e., research, birddogging congress, congresspedia), connect and generally find ways to break the old kleptocracy). Bill and Conor have some contacts with folks who they are already working with, but we're a fledgling community. If you're interested in posing as a Sunlight Citizen, please email me (zteachout at sunlightfoundation.com). Especially if you're interested in being a real Sunlight citizen somewhere along the way.

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Report from Sunlight North

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I’ve just started this job with Sunlight a little over a month now, and one of our first projects, providing mini-grants of $1000 to $5000 to innovative people with risky or brilliant ideas about opening up government is already making me a little less morbid than I was about a year ago. Its nice to be reminded we’re a country teeming these persistent citizens, daydreaming at midnight, and over 20 different ideas have come in the door so far from Arkansas to Hawaii. If we can’t fund all of them, which we can’t even begin to, hopefully we can at least provide some boost, some direction, some connections to make something possible.

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Seeking video of K street, sky boxes and Signatures

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For a little project this fall, I'm looking for video images (5-15 seconds long) that visually display lobbying -- K street, sky boxes, Washington restaurants, etc. A fishing trip? A spa? Do you happen to have video from a trip to DC, or a trip to your local Congressperson's office? Do you have suggestions of video we might use? Send it to me. We are only looking for video that is licensed under a Creative Commons license so that other people can reuse and remix, so long as its attributed. If your work isn't licensed at all, but you're willing to share it, that's great, too.

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