Here is Wednesday's look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup:
- POGO has filed FOIA and Mandatory Declassification Review requests for the secret memo that the US government issued to justify killing radical cleric, and US citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki. (POGO)
- HHS is planning to follow in NOAA's footsteps as it attempts to lower health care costs. They plan to release massive amounts of health care data in an attempt to spur private sector innovation. (Nextgov)
- The House of Representatives has released a tablet-ready website for watching live, streaming video of floor proceedings. The site combines video from the floor with links to bill text and information on votes. Try it for yourself at houselive.gov (techPresident)
- OPM has spent the past 18 months overhauling USAjobs.gov, the Federal government's largest job application resource. The new version is expected to be fully functional today. (Fierce Government)
- Open Town Hall aims to provide governments with a place to host online comment forums that have the same level of decorum and discourse as public meetings. The platform is currently used by more than 25 agencies and elected officials. (govfresh)
- As the dust settles after the collapse of Solyndra energy companies and stakeholders are rushing to flex their lobbying muscle. More than 40 groups have hired lobbyists to work on energy issues since the beginning of August. (Roll Call)
- A 75 member coalition has come together to push for reform that would give shareholders a larger voice in corporate political spending decision. They have their sights set on reforms at the SEC, as well as federal and state legislation. (Roll Call)
In Depth with Campaign Finance Data
Influence Explorer and TransparencyData are the Sunlight Foundation’s two main sources for data on money and influence in politics. Both sites are warehouses for a variety of datasets, including campaign finance, lobbying, earmarks, federal spending and various other corporate accountability datasets. The underlying data is the same for both sites, but the presentation is very different. Influence Explorer takes the most important or prominent entities in the data--such as state and federal politicians, well-known individuals, and large companies and organizations--and gives each its own page with easy to understand charts and graphs. TransparencyData, on the other hand, gives searchable access to the raw records that make up each Influence Explorer page. Influence Explorer can answer questions like, “who was the top donor to Obama’s presidential campaign?” TransparencyData lets you dig down into the details of every single donation to that campaign.
Every chart and figure in Influence Explorer is derived from the detailed records in TransparencyData. But correctly computing totals from the raw records isn’t always straightforward. This article will explain how the figures on Influence Explorer are computed from TransparencyData records, and along the way show some of the intricacies of campaign finance rules and limitations of the data.
Continue readingLabs Olympics: Rex the Cleanosaur
We've got a problem here at Sunlight. A tiny kitchen and a large staff is a recipe for a disaster of immense magnitude. Each day a member of staff is assigned to kitchen duty; the list on the fridge has a schedule of who is responsible for keeping the dishwasher full and run as needed, wiping down the counters and making sure that dishes are put in the appropriate cabinets. Some staff members do a really great job, others are inconsiderate assholes who let the kitchen go to pot (I admit to being one of the inconsiderate assholes on occasion). We're smart people, there has to be a better way to do this!
Rex the Cleanosaur is a better way.
For the 2011 Sunlight Labs Olympics, Team Awesome created Rex the Cleanosaur, a kitchen duty management application. Rex generates a schedule from current staff members and emails them with their assignments. If you receive an assignment for a day that you will be unavailable, just click the link provided in the assignment email to defer your duty. Another staff member will be automatically scheduled to take your day, but the next day they have kitchen duty, you'll do theirs. Just to keep everything fair, the web app makes deferments publicly available. Rex will chase down and eat habitual deferrers!
We also developed a tablet based interface that will be hung in the kitchen to display the person that has the current kitchen duty. But what if that person is doing a terrible job? How awkward it would be to have to talk to them face-to-face to ask them to do a better job. No worries! The table interface has a "nudge" button that, when tapped, sends the person responsible for the kitchen an anonymous, passive aggressive email telling them to get their act together. If they are doing a great job, you can "throw 'em a bone" to thank them for their excellent work.
The nudges and bones are used to calculate rankings of the best and worst kitchen duty. If the person responsible for kitchen duty has a high nudge count, you know that they will probably need some extra reminders throughout the day. Managers could even use nudge/bone counts as a factor in determining yearly raises! Okay, not really, but you can still berate people with high nudge counts for their lack of consideration for their fellow employees.
So what's next? We plan to add a way for the person with kitchen duty to rate the office as a whole on how well they held up their end of kitchen cleanliness (placing dirty dished in the sink rather than the dishwasher, etc). There are also some early plans for coupons, exemptions from kitchen duty that managers can give away as rewards for good work or to pay off employees that stumble upon secret evil plans their managers are working on.
Team Awesome consists of Chris Rogers, Drew Vogel, and Jeremy Carbaugh.
Continue readingMembers of Congress Can Address Super Committee Super Secrecy
Today’s New York Times reports that Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are concerned about the super... View Article
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 10/11/2011
Here is Tuesday's look at the abbreviated week's transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup:
- Republicans and Democrats have found a rare issue to agree on; Super Committee transparency. Members of both parties are concerned that the committee has conducted too much of its business in secret. The opaque process may make it difficult for congress and the public to accept the panel's recommendations. (New York Times)
- President Obama has received more money from Wall Street than any other politician over the past 20 years. The Daily Caller cites the Sunlight Foundation in their report. (Yahoo/Daily Caller)
- Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the DNC, no longer accepts campaign donations from federal lobbyists and PACs. However, her old leadership PAC is still raising funds from those sources. (Politico)
- The New Mexico Republican party has filed a law suit alleging that a state law limiting contributions, to or by, political parties to $5,000 is unconstitutional. (LobbyComply)
- The Obama administration issued a secret legal memo that paved the way for the killing of radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. Reportedly, the memo stated that killing al-Awlaki would be lawful if it was not feasible to take him alive. (New York Times)
- The Federal government forced Google and Sonic, an internet provider, to reveal data with a secret court order. The order was part of an effort to gain information from the email of WikiLeaks volunteer Jacob Appelbaum. (Politico)
- Dayton, Ohio is turning to new technology in an effort to reward residents for recycling. Since the program's inception last month, recycling rates are up 40%. (govtech)
- New York City's Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne highlighted the city's open government efforts in a presentation to the Strata conference. (govfresh)
- Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Hearings to examine labor-management forums in the Federal government. SD-342. Tues. 10/11, 2:30 pm. Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia.
- Budget. Hearings to examine improving the congressional budget process. SD-608. Wed. 10/12, 9:30 am. Full committee hearing.
- Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Hearings to examine ten years after 9/11, focusing on a status report on information sharing. SD-342. Wed. 10/12, 10:30 am. Full committee hearing.
- Foreign Affairs. Markup on H.R. 2829: To promote transparency, accountability, and reform within the United Nations system, and for other purposes. 2172 RHOB. Thurs. 10/13, 12:00 pm.
- House Administration. Federal Election Commission: Reviewing policies, processes, and procedures. 1310 LHOB. Thurs. 10/13, 3:00 pm. Subcommittee on Elections.
Congressional Transparency Caucus Roundtable: Video!
Last Thursday the Transparency Caucus, chaired by Congressmen Quigley (D-IL) and Issa (R-CA), held a roundtable meeting to discuss leading... View Article
Continue readingSEC ‘revolving door’ data online but useful information redacted
The revolving door has been swinging rapidly for employees leaving the Securities and Exchange Commission to work in the private sector to represent big companies in actions brought by the agency. But while the commission gathers post-employment information from former employees, it does not make this information readily available.
Even when these records of the SEC's so-called “revolving door” are requested through the Freedom of Information Act, they tend to be incomplete and heavily redacted, according to a report by the Project on Government Oversight.
If an employee leaves the SEC and within two years and decides to work ...
Continue readingSunlight Weekly Roundup: Public frustrations regarding lack of transparency
The Jordan-Elbridge County school district held a training session for the public on the county’s open meetings law. State Supreme... View Article
Continue readingSave the Date: Labs Open House October 25
Jeremy mentioned it in this week's labs update, but it's worth broadcasting it more loudly: we're having another Sunlight Labs open house! It's been about a year since the last time we did this. We had a great time with you all back then, and are looking forward to doing it again.
So! Please mark your calendars: we'll be opening our doors on Tuesday, October 25 at 6pm. Expect drinks, games, technology chit-chat and more than a little Halloween-themed nonsense.
If you think you can make it, do us a favor and RSVP here. We're looking forward to seeing you there!
Continue readingData.gov to Remain a Top Priority
Major open government initiatives, namely Data.gov, Performance.gov, and USAspending.gov, are likely to remain top priorities for the E-Government fund, according... View Article
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