A new book from O’Reilly media, entitled Open Government: Collaboration, Transparency, and Participation in Practice, discusses the possible ways government can utilize the power of citizen engagement to become more efficient and transparent.
Continue readingWhat if Government had a Google Buzz Moment?
Three days ago Google released Google Buzz-- a product that got a lot of folks excited-- especially here in the Labs. But fairly quickly people understood something-- Google took a step across an invisible privacy fence. A lot of people are critical or downright ticked off. Google had, in fact, exposed who we communicate with the most to the world.
If the Federal Government released a product similar to Google Buzz, what would have happened?
Continue readingThe Legacy of Billy Tauzin: The White House-PhRMA Deal
More than a million spectators gathered before the Capitol on a frosty January afternoon to witness the inauguration of Barack... View Article
Continue readingOSHA Workplace Samples: Millions of Records Out of Reach
An estimated 49,000 Americans die prematurely of work-related exposures to toxic substances every year. Mindful of this sad fact, and having served as director of health standards for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Dr. Adam Finkel filed a Freedom of Information Act request with OSHA in 2005, seeking the results of millions of air and wipe samples taken at workplaces around the country. Finkel planned to analyze the data and eventually post it on the Web in a format that would allow users to learn the types and quantities of compounds to which they or others may have ...
Continue readingThe Data Mine Launched by The Center for Public Integrity and Sunlight Foundation
President Obama's Open Government Initiative urges federal agencies to make high-value data publicly available at www.data.gov. But agencies too often are reluctant to release information, or choose to release it in a hard-to-use format. Today, the Center for Public Integrity, in partnership with the Sunlight Foundation, launches The Data Mine, an online series that will highlight inaccessible or poorly presented information from the federal government. From the CIA to the CDC, well be looking at data that needs to be public, with regular posts on the Center's and Sunlight's websites. Well describe each data set ...
Continue readingCampaign Lessons from Dancing Guy
That said, Sivers posted something really brilliant on his blog yesterday - based on a TED talk he's given - and it's something that we can absolutely learn from as the movement for open government builds across the country. This is very much worth your three minutes of viewing time if you're an organizer or even remotely interested in why or how people come together. This "dancing guy" illustrates for us the elements of movement and campaign building in an incredibly condensed amount of time.
Continue readingSchumer and Van Hollen Embrace Transparency Measures to Combat Citizens United
The Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC opened the door to a torrent of new political spending that,... View Article
Continue readingFree yourself from the Shackles of “High Value Data”
"High Value Datasets" is a bunk term.
When the feds introduced the term High Value Data, my immediate response here was "what the heck is 'High Value Data'?!" We quickly extracted the definition from the Open Government Directive and here it is:
"High-value information is information that can be used to increase agency accountability and responsiveness; improve public knowledge of the agency and its operations; further the core mission of the agency; create economic opportunity; or respond to need and demand as identified through public consultation."
Now we've had a chance to go through and take a look at some of the datasets. Our http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com is having a field day analyzing the data, pointing out flaws in the data and generally doing a great job of figuring out what's actually new in the datasets.
Continue readingNFL Owners, Executives Contribute In Run-Up to Labor Dispute
The Super Bowl may have been the most watched television program of all time, but many inside the National Football... View Article
Continue readingAmtrak: Winner by default in high speed rail contest
Last month the Obama Administration announced which high speed rail projects across the country will receive portions of the $8 billion in Recovery act funds dedicated to advancing high speed technology in the country. However, the largest single beneficiary of the spending did not directly receive a dime. Amtrak, the federally funded rail company, will benefit from $4.5 billion worth of improvements to the infrastructure that its trains run on. That's in addition to the $1.3 billion in stimulus money the company received last year for capital improvements. The nearly $6 billion will supplement the annual appropriation ...
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