Ken Ward, Jr. points to a statement by Sen. Jay Rockefeller calling for Senate hearings on the Upper Big Branch... View Article
Continue readingOGD: Food access mapping tool provides more than just its title
As part of the First Lady’s campaign to combat childhood obesity, the Department of Agriculture in February launched the Your Food Environment Atlas – an online mapping tool of the nation’s access to food at the county level.
The tool, developed by the USDA Economic Research Service, also happens to serve the dual role of becoming one of three datasets that Agriculture plans to add to its contributions to Data.gov as agencies continue to comply with the White House Open Government Directive.
While the tool is labeled as a method for the public to access information about their ...
Health and Human Services Joins Design for America Contest
Health data is one of those no-brainer transparency issues. While we all have our favorite datasets we want to see released, the Department of Health and Human Services has the capacity to save lives and billions of dollars when it releases its data.
I spoke with Todd Park, the CTO of HHS about his plans, and he asked if there was a way to get developers interested in data from the Agency. Thanks to the Open Government Directive-- which encourages agencies to participate in "innovation contests," a pretty easy fit occured to the both of us: HHS should have a category in Design for America.
So that's what we're going to do.
Continue readingWhat Open Government plans could learn from retail management
After working several depressing retail jobs in my teenage years, I used to think that it was a kind of... View Article
Continue readingWashington Post cites Russian role in Kyrgyzstan unrest
The Washington Post reports that "Kremlin-friendly television stations and newspapers" and Russian economic sanctions played a key role in the toppling of Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
Though Bakiyev fled the country on April 7, he has refused to resign his post.
Kyrgyzstan provides a key air base to U.S. forces engaged in Afghanistan. Allegations of corruption in supplying the base by officials figured in the toppling of both the previous government and that of Bakiyev, according to the New York Times.
The effort to topple Bakiyev, the Post reported, "...was a sharp departure from Russia's traditional support for ...
OGD: Future Medicare data looks promising
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services appear to be on to something with their promised new datasets. It's a leap for an agency whose previous offerings were a confusing mishmash of poorly-labeled files. If they continue to add granularity as they roll out more features, journalists could have a useful and innovative set of tools on their hands.
The “Dashboard” CMS intends to create, a demo of which is currently online, looks at Medicare spending on services. It's a good tool for quickly grasping the big picture; you can view data as a bubble chart, for example ...
A Study in Transparency: The Open Government Directive, the Department of Labor, and the Open Data Principles
Cabinet agencies (and others) released their Open Government Plans last week with much fanfare, mixed reviews, and many promises for... View Article
Continue readingOn Thursday, Make Tax Day A Little More Fun
This Thursday, April 15th is Sunlight’s tax day fundraiser for the Public=Online Campaign. Thanks to everyone who supports open government... View Article
Continue readingWhy not mining investigation transparency?
Ken Ward, Jr. at The Charleston Gazette asks an important question: Why not make investigations into mining disasters open to... View Article
Continue readingHawaii Superferry: An ulterior motive?
Was the Hawaii Superferry project conceived of as a means of securing a military contract? Speculation in Hawaii among activists that the ferries might have eventually been used for interisland transport of the Army’s Stryker brigade and other military equipment fueled conflict between protestors and Superferry supporters.
In March 2005, John F. Lehman, a former Navy Secretary during the Reagan administration and the company's principal investor, told Pacific Business News that there was a possibility the ferries would be used to move military cargo. In 2008, the former CEO and President of HSF, Inc., Thomas Fargo, said that ...
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