According to the latest Global Corruption Barometer, the judiciary in Slovakia is the least trusted institution in the world, and 70% of Slovakians consider it to be corrupt. This is partly because the Slovak judiciary system has no external influence and enjoys a very high level of independence not only from other branches of power, but also from the general public. Last July, the OpenCourts portal (available only in Slovak and the first open data project dealing with the judiciary branch) was launched by Transparency International Slovakia. Its main goal is to make the Slovakian system more transparent and allow the public to control courts and judges in order to hold them accountable.
Today in #OpenGov 11/26/2013
Programming note: Today in #OpenGov, and its author, will be taking the rest of the week off. Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving! National News
- The House Chief Administrative Officer, Dan Strodel, is retiring after 28 years on Capitol Hill. Before being tapped to run the office that supports more than 10,000 members, staff, and employees, Strodel was a senior adviser to the House Committee on Administration. A replacement is expected to be named soon. (Roll Call)
- Today in cogitative dissonance, the Laborers' International Union of North America PAC chipped in $150,000 to the Defending Main Street Super PAC. Defending Main Street is a right leaning group started by former Rep. Steven LaTourette (R), that hopes to defend more moderate Republicans. (Roll Call)
- Happy Holidays from the FEC, a reminder that campaigns and committees who intend to send out more than 500 holiday greetings need to disclose the organization behind the card. (Roll Call)
- The Tunisian Ministry of Finance took an important step while presenting their budget proposal to the National Constituent Assembly, the country's interim legislative body. In addition to the official submission, they released an overview document to the wider public. (International Budget Partnership)
- Qingdao, one of China's major cities, just launched an open government platform that targets citizen services and information to help residents navigate city life. (Future Gov)
- Sierra Madre, California turned to OpenGov.com, a silicon valley start up, to institute a more open budget. The new system allows city employees and citizens to dig deeper into the budget. (Sierra Madre Weekly)
- A number of bills are floating around the Massachusetts state house that would institute a number of reforms to state public records laws. The bills would lower costs, make it easier to download electronic records, and streamline the process. (Lowell Sun)
How much lobbying is there in Washington? It’s DOUBLE what you think
With the help of the lobbying industry, Washington’s regional economy seems to have weathered the economic storm of recent years. Curiously, though, the seemingly simple question “How much lobbying is there in Washington?” is surprisingly hard to answer. After Congress passed the 1995 Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA), which ostensibly required all “lobbyists” to report their activities on behalf of paying clients, the answer should be a no-brainer: just find the legally-mandated disclosure forms, and count them up. The Center for Responsive Politics, with support from the Sunlight Foundation, has been doing this (well!) for years.
The problem is that just about everybody in the influence world knows that these numbers fall way short of reality. You might even say “under-the-radar,” “stealth,” or “shadow” lobbying is a bit of an Open Secret in Washington. What we don’t know is just how many shadow lobbyists there are.
Continue readingToday in #OpenGov 11/25/2013
National News
- Dark money isn't just for conservative groups, according to new documents filed with the IRS. The left-leaning nonprofit League of Conservation Voters spent $36 million in 2012, with $15 million going towards political activities. (Public Integrity)
- The press isn't particularly happy with the White House over their level of access to to the President and the let it be known at a contentious briefing last week. The White House Correspondents Association is upset that the White House has broken with tradition by keeping press out of some events, while releasing official photos and videos. (POLITICO)
- President Obama is heading to the West Coast to drum up some money for the DNC, but he might be in for a tough trip as donors vent their frustrations with the bungled Affordable Care Act roll-out. Despite the potential for anger, Obama is still expected to rake in plenty of money for the party. (Washington Post)
- The Ukrainian Government has suspended preparations for signing an EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, a move that upset many of its citizens. Protests have sprung up around the country and are being tracked in an interactive map. (Global Voices)
- Developing countries lose between $20 and $40 billion every year to graft, according to a new report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. The high levels of corruption are considered the greatest obstacle to economic and social development in these nations. (The FCPA Blog)
- Despite lots of talk about transparency and open government, the authors of this piece see it as mostly rhetoric so far, with minimal real world results in states around the US. Meanwhile, elected officials and high ranking bureaucrats are walling themselves off from the press. (Governing)
- Tech companies are supporting open data legislation under consideration in San Francisco that would push forward a number of initiatives. (San Francisco Examiner)
The Week on Politwoops: Macklemore, the Worst Autocorrect Ever and Self-Funding
Time again to look at the past week through the lens of deleted tweets from U.S. politicians caught by Politwoops.
Continue readingNavigating the new landscape of transparency and journalism
The intersecting worlds of big data, transparency and journalism are changing rapidly.
Need a roadmap to the new terrain? Fortunately, the University of Oxford has teamed up with the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism to produce a new volume: Transparency in Politics and the Media: Accountability and Open Government. The volume brings forth a star-studded line-up of journalists and academics to give the latest and greatest lay-of-the-land for those who want to get up to speed on what’s what.
Though there’s no substitute for reading all the contributions, I’ve tried to distill some of the highlights and big picture “here’s where things are heading” insights into the three big areas the book covers: big data, transparency and journalism
Looking Towards Next Week’s Open Data Executive Order Deadline
November 30th marks the first major deadline for agency compliance with President Obama’s Open Data Executive Order and accompanying Memorandum M-13-13. In addition to representing an important step in the march towards open government and proper data management, this is an opportunity to evaluate agencies, identify best practices, and advocate for change. The Executive Order will continue to be implemented over the coming months and years, but agencies should, and will, be judged on how much effort they put into this first deadline. The level of agency compliance now will be a clear representation of how seriously they take the Executive Order.
Guidance issued alongside the Executive Order provides a strong roadmap for agency participation, but leaves some important points up for interpretation. Notably, agencies are given too much leeway to keep even the existence of their data secret.
Continue readingOpenGov Voices: Announcing CitizenAudit, a free tool for fully-OCRd nonprofit financials
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the guest blogger and those providing comments are theirs alone and do not reflect the 
opinions of the Sunlight Foundation or any employee thereof. Sunlight Foundation is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information within the guest blog.
Luke Rosiak is a former Sunlight Foundation reporter and database analyst who now writes for the Washington Examiner. Luke is also a winner of Sunlight Foundation’s OpenGov Grants for his project, CitizenAudit. You can reach Luke on Twitter at @lukerosiak.
In return for not paying taxes, nonprofits in the U.S. file detailed financial disclosures to the IRS, listing how much of their money goes to certain categories, how much they pay their top people and what groups they give money to.
But even though large nonprofits submit structured electronic data, the IRS takes pains to convert it into paper copies and doesn’t make them available publicly at all, instead directing interested parties to request a copy from the organization itself.
Recently, tech pioneer Carl Malamud’s Public.Resource.Org began successfully filing Freedom of Information Act requests for all disclosures--990s, as they are called---and paying the IRS on a monthly basis for reams of DVDs with TIFF images. Some are scanned paper filings, for others the IRS went out of their way to turn structured data into a mere image. None has an embedded text layer.
The information is invaluable for philanthropists, journalists and competitors--and the universe of nonprofits is enormous, including the major sports leagues, political groups, hospitals and universities and quasi-public institutions.
So I began an enormous OCRing spree, using open-source tools and home-built software and put the results in elasticsearch and PostgreSQL on a free site. The effort, half the funding for which came thanks to a Sunlight Foundation OpenGov grant of $5,000, is called CitizenAudit.org.
Continue readingChristie brings his clout, fundraising chops to new role as RGA head
As he settles into his new post as chair of the Republican Governors' Association, a look at the fundraising chops of Chris Christie shows the Jerseyite already has substantial national support
Continue readingToday in #OpenGov 11/22/2013
National News
- Republican Representative Tom Petri (WI) introduced a bill that purports to encourage more individuals to give small amounts to political campaigns. The Citizens Involvement in Campaigns (CIVIC) Act would restore tax credits and deductions for small donations that were in place between 1972 and 1986. (Roll Call)
- The FEC declined to grant the Tea Party Leadership Fund an exemption from disclosure that they have in the past given to small, leftist political parties. Commissioners opposing the request suggested that the Socialist Workers Party, and other similar groups given the exemption, were niche parties with small donor bases ripe for harassment, while the Tea Party Leadership Fund is a member of a nationally recognized movement with a wide base of support. (POLITICO)
- Japan has an open data policy in place. But according to an Open Knowledge Foundation Index the country is lagging behind many of their first world counterparts. (Global Voices)
- There was good and bad news to be had at an oversight hearing on the implementation of New York City's oepn data law earlier this week. The city has been a leader on open data issues, but technologists, advocates, and city councilors have found frustration in the available data and timelines set by agencies for releasing more. (Tech President)
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