As the country hurtles toward financial default and the government shutdown enters it's 16th day, one of the crucial elements surfacing in various GOP proposals to end the stalemate is a repeal of the medical device tax, passed as part of the Affordable Care Act. While the industry was not powerful enough to keep the tax out of Obamacare, it has waged a strong campaign since to win a repeal, employing Washington lobbyists-for-hire with deep Washington contacts. Meet some of these lobbyists via our Influence Explorer and Party Time tools.
Tarplin, Downs & Young. Cofounded in 2006 by a trio ...
Continue readingHow Open Data Can Engage Civil Society and Improve Procurement Oversight
With the release of our report on Philippine public procurement we are now two cases into our deep look at procurement transparency and open contracting. As we look at these cases some important themes about data accessibility have begun to emerge. As I said in our Philippines write up: “absent accessible data, whistleblowers and leaks are the only safeguard against corruption. When the data is not readily available, it can’t enable meaningful oversight.” To be truly accessible, simply posting information online is not enough. For transparency to actually lead to accountability, barriers to using the data must be low. Data should be open to the public without gates, published in open and machine-readable formats, and available in bulk. These are things that we have been longtime proponents of at the Sunlight Foundation, (see our Open Data Guidelines), and our case research so far confirms their importance.
Continue readingReasons to Not Release Data, Part 10: Say What?
Earlier this month, we shared a crowdsourced collection of the top concerns data advocates have heard when they’ve raised an open data project with government officials at the federal, state, and local level, and we asked for you to share how you’ve responded. Dozens of you contributed to the project, sharing your thoughts on social media, our public Google doc, and even on the Open Data Stack Exchange, where 8 threads were opened to dive deeper into specific subjects.
Drawing from your input, our own experience, and existing materials from our peers at the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership and some data warriors from the UK, we’ve compiled a number of answers -- discussion points, if you will -- to help unpack and respond to some of the most commonly cited open data concerns. This mash-up of expertise is a work in progress, but we bet you’ll find it a useful conversation starter (or continuer) for your own data advocacy efforts.
Click here to see other posts in this series.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing challenges and responses from our #WhyOpenData list that correspond to different themes. Today’s theme, Say What?, celebrates a grab bag of challenges.
Continue readingGovernment shutdown muddies transparency in NJ Senate race
On the eve of New Jersey's special election for U.S. Senate, outside groups have been bombarding Jersyites with political ads and canvassing efforts as both sides make final pleas to voters in a tightening race -- even the President got in on the action. But one thing Garden State voters will not see before they visit their local ballot box is a full picture of the candidates' campaign contributions. Like a lot of problems in Washington these days, this one can be chalked up to the government shutdown.
Continue readingExtra! Extra!! Get your real time campaign finance data here!!!
As fundraising for the 2014 congressional contests heats up and filing deadlines loom this week, the Sunlight Foundation is unveiling a new tool - the Real-Time FEC tracker - that will allow users to search, sort, filter and get alerts for campaign finance reports as they land at the Federal Election Commission.
Today in #OpenGov 10/15/2013
National News
- John Paul Farmer, the man behind the unique Presidential Innovations Fellows program, is leaving the White House after three years. The program brings entrepreneurs and technologists into the White House to work on short term, high impact projects. (Fedscoop)
- Edward Snowden has been given an award by a group of former intelligence officials and whistleblowers. The group gives the Sam Adams Award every year to a like minded individual that exhibits "integrity in intelligence." (POLITICO)
- The Obama administration is trying to defend itself after a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists released a report slamming it for being afraid of the press, taking extreme measures to prevent links, and generally having a chilling effect on journalism. (POLITICO)
- A new repository, Perma CC, aims to ensure that sites linked in scholarly works and legal documents have a permanent and persistent home on the internet. Recent studies have revealed link rot to be a significant problem as legal writing and scholarly research moves into the digital age. (ars technica)
- Policymakers met in Africa last week to discuss the need to crack down on corruption that funnels hundreds of billions of dollars out of the continent. (Financial Transparency Coalition)
- A unique alliance has come together to oppose a lobbying reform bill currently working its way through the UK parliament. Labor unions, professional lobbyists, and constitutional reform groups are all highly critical of the bill and have come together to oppose it in the house of Lords. (The Independent UK)
- The Egyptian government is turning to high profile K street names in an effort to convince the US to reopen the recently shut off aid flow to the embattled country. Egypt hired the Glover Park Group after more than a year without counsel on K street. (The Hill)
- Oakland, California is seeking a new Chief Information Officer, presumably to help them compete with San Francisco and keep up recent open gov and technological improvements. (GovFresh)
Shutdown spells big gains for nation’s gross political product
While federal workers and beneficiaries are taking an economic hit, the shutdown seems to be proving a financial bonanza for the nation's political consultant class. Both Republicans and Democrats are churning out ads focused on the shutdown. Guess what? Each blames the other for it.
Continue readingReasons to Not Release Data, Part 9: “Already” Public Data
Earlier this month, we shared a crowdsourced collection of the top concerns data advocates have heard when they’ve raised an open data project with government officials at the federal, state, and local level, and we asked for you to share how you’ve responded. Dozens of you contributed to the project, sharing your thoughts on social media, our public Google doc, and even on the Open Data Stack Exchange, where 8 threads were opened to dive deeper into specific subjects.
Drawing from your input, our own experience, and existing materials from our peers at the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership and some data warriors from the UK, we’ve compiled a number of answers -- discussion points, if you will -- to help unpack and respond to some of the most commonly cited open data concerns. This mash-up of expertise is a work in progress, but we bet you’ll find it a useful conversation starter (or continuer) for your own data advocacy efforts.
Click here to see other posts in this series.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing challenges and responses from our #WhyOpenData list that correspond to different themes. Today’s theme is "Already" Public Data. (Kudos if you find the Easter Egg.)
Continue readingNYC’s Plan to Release All-ish of Their Data
OpenGov Voices: Chasing the 8-hour app
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.
Tom Meagher is the co-founder of Hack Jersey and the data editor at Digital First Media's Project Thunderdome in New York City. Follow Hack Jersey at @hackjersey or www.hackjersey.com. Reach Tom at @ultracasual.
A few weeks ago, Hack Jersey brought a group of journalists and developers together to wrestle with campaign finance data. We thought it would be a good opportunity for many to get their hands dirty and to start thinking about new ways of reporting and building with the data.
In one room of our event at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, a group of journalists went on a data expedition, learning how to explore reports from the state's Election Law Enforcement Commission. In another, we gathered developers to try to build a campaign finance app for New Jersey using the Sunlight Foundation's APIs in a single work session.
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