Josh Ruihley, of Sunlight, and creator of OpenHearings.org, recently found an XML feed of committee schedules from the Senate. (via Twitter.) They're advertising this fact via a link on this page. On first examination, he reports that the data format looks solid, and should prove useful. In fact, Josh has already integrated the new information to feed the OpenHearings schedule database. Time for the House to catch up!
Continue readingPersonal Democracy Forum’s “Rebooting America” Essay Contest
Our friends at Personal Democracy Forum (PdF) have launched an essay contest around the issue of Rebooting America: Democracy in the 21st Century, which is the name of an anthology of essays they are publishing on the topic. PdF will include the contest winner's essays in the book that will include pieces written by leading thinkers and activists and citizens like you. They are publishing the book in conjunction with their Personal Democracy Forum conference June 23-24 in New York City. Contest winners will also receive complementary passes to the conference.
I'm honored to join the likes of Clay Shirky, Yockai Benkler, Susan Crawford, Beth Noveck, Craig Newmark, danah boyd, Scott Heiferman, Tara Hunt, Josh Marshall, Jeff Jarvis, Howard Rheingold, John Bonifaz, Brad Templeton, Mike Turk, James Rucker, Morra Aarons, Patrick Ruffini, Lisa Stone, Joe Trippi, David Weinberger and others in offering ideas on how to reinvent democracy in America using the Internet and Web 2.0.
Continue readingDigital Preservation Under Threat?
Via dotgovwatch, it looks like the National Archives is discontinuing their Web Harvest program:
For the first time since the Internet began, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) will not record a snapshot of Executive Branch websites at the end of a Presidential administration.
In the article, Coby Logen notes that the valuable work of non-profits like archive.org shouldn't entirely supplant the work of the government. Federal agencies exist to protect the public interest, through a public mechanism. Our national government has a responsibility to protect and document its history. They are uniquely positioned to do so; no one else has both the reliable public mandate and the public accountability necessary for protecting historical documents.
Federal Web sites are historical documents, and NARA's Web Harvest program should be enthusiastically supported. Digital records management should enable easier and cheaper preservation, and brings the promise of more meaningful disclosure and access to both current and historical documents.
The fact that digital preservation is done by others outside NARA isn't an excuse for NARA to abdicate their responsibility, but an argument that they should be capable of fulfilling it.
As Members of Congress and Federal Agencies increasingly move their work online, robust digital archiving will only become more important, so we can understand how our government is performing its duties.
Continue readingNew Site gives Maine some Transparency
There is a new Web site that is consolidating documents from the state government of
This is a great new resource for the citizens of
Ethics Watch News Feed
If you ever need to know what's going on on Capitol Hill in regards to ethics, corruption, or reform check out our Ethics Watch news feed down the right hand sidebar. The Ethics Watch news feed has been updated daily for almost two years now and it has an excellent archive of links to articles about congressional ethics, corruption, reform, and transparency. You can view the whole archive from October 2006 to today at this link. Below is a tag cloud visualization of all the words included in the news feed since October 2006. It provides a window into the stories that have dominated coverage of ethics and reform in Congress over the past two years. Click to make it bigger:
Local Sunlight
This week I have highlights from
PublicMarkup.org’s First Week
The first week of PublicMarkup.org's launch has exceeded our expectations.
As I write this post, there are now 63 comments on our draft legislation, which you can now keep track of through an RSS feed. While many of the posts come from allies familiar to Sunlight, we're delighted to find excellent, new ideas throughout the comments. Interest in congressional information reaches well beyond the inside-the-beltway advocacy community, and we're happy to provide a forum for substantive reform ideas.
Talking with members of the press has been really enjoyable too, especially as they try to use traditional approaches to writing about legislation. The initial questions tend not to quite fit with a model of advocacy that is entirely open, so questions like "who is sponsoring it?" or "when might they vote on it?" tend to miss the mark. Questions like "What would constitute a success?", or "Why aren't other organizations doing this sort of thing?" might be better starting places. Conducting advocacy in the open is a rather new idea, though, so we'll have to develop some new ideas together about what constitutes consensus, success, and a productive drafting process.
As it stands now, though, we're happy to not have all the answers about where the bill is going. Just like legislation itself, we're not pretending to know the best strategy for the bill, and we recognize that best ideas will be the ones that can benefit from a large community of experts and stakeholders.
One thing is clear: if PublicMarkup.org's second week is anything like its first, our reform ideas -- and the open advocacy strategy we're using to develop them -- will both have very bright futures.
Lawmakers Have a Financial Stake in the War
Yesterday afternoon the Center for Responsive Politics posted an article that makes great use of their Sunlight-funded Personal Financial data on Congress and FedSpending.org on defense contracts.
CRP found that members of Congress had as much as $196 million invested in companies with Dept. of Defense contracts in 2006 (the most recent reports available), which seems worth noting as Congress awaits a briefing on the Iraq war from Gen. Petraeus next week. The contractors in which Congress is most invested are, for the most part, not in the defense sector, which surprised them (but makes sense given the vast size and many needs of the US military ) but are companies like Procter & Gamble, Pepsico, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson. According to CRP, members also hold millions of dollars in defense company stock such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Massie sez:
I think many American investors would be surprised to learn that lawmakers have a financial stake in the war.
And in other findings from their new favorite database (Personal Financial Disclosures), CRP had this item in yesterday's newsletter, pointing out that the ranking Republican on the House's global warming committee is a big investor in the oil companies that were called on the carpet by the committee's Democrats on Tuesday:
Continue readingCampaign Contributions Cum Sympathy
The Washington Post's Dana Milbank is brilliant today in discussing Alan Schwartz, the former CEO of Bear Stearns and the richest welfare recipient in the nation, and his appearance before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Milbank notes that the head of the investment firm that nearly dragged the entire economy down was questioned by sympathetic and apologetic lawmakers who just so happen to have received $20 million as a whole in campaign contributions from the Securities and Investment industry. Watch the video and read the story:
Continue readingRep. Al Wynn Has A Conflict of Interest Writ Large
Rep. Al Wynn, who's announced he's taken a position with uber-lobbying firm Dickstein Shapiro, is going to have to watch his step to avoid any conflict of interest until he actually resigns in June.
A quick look at the firm's 2006 and 2007 client lists begs the question, what's can he possibly do in his remaining time that wouldn't be a conflict with one of the firm's clients? As The Washington Post wrote Sunday in an editorial titled "Mr. Wynn's Ignoble Exit," the reason for his early exit is clear, "M-O-N-E-Y." The Post said it best, "Don't let the revolving door hit you on the way out."
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