Google has been working with federal agencies to help them ensure that their data are accessible through search engines. Many government databases providing critical information or statistics have existed for much longer than the current standards for public Internet accessibility, so the disconnect between search engines and public databases is understandable. There is a clear public benefit, however, when search terms like "Colorado census 1990", "federal childhood immunology standards", "Pennsylvania superfund sites", or "Congressional Record 1930 Stock Market" result in the information the searcher is obviously interested in--government information. (More after the break.)
Continue readingWhat You See Is What You Get
Money and politics, united completely.
More Widgets!
Yesterday, I highlighted a new interactive and customizable widget that lets the citizen be the journalist, AskYourLawmaker.org. Here's another really interesting one.
Besides his day job at the Cato Institute, Jim Harper is the creative force behind WashingtonWatch.com, which places a value on changes to future federal spending, taxes, or regulation. The goal of the site is to convey the significance to average Americans -- in dollars and cents -- of proposed changes to the nation's policies. Jim's new widget allows bloggers to show the current state on pending legislation. It allows individuals to comment on the bill, and to even vote yea or nay on the legislation. It's very cool.
Continue readingBundlers
Lisa Zagaroli, writing for McClatchy Newspapers, reports on the growing importance of bundlers in presidential campaign fundraising. These "mega-fundraisers" are very skilled at using their business and personal contacts to raise large amounts of campaign cash for a specific candidate. Only a few presidential candidates have released any information on who is doing the bundling but we know that the bundlers usually have super access to the candidates. No presidential campaign has released both the names of their bundlers and the amount each individual fundraiser has raised. Each campaign has adopted varying degrees of disclosure on who is raising their big bucks.
On October 30, Congressional Quarterly reported that Federal Election Commission is working on new bundling rules. One proposal, which came out of the Congress, is to only disclose the bundlers who are federal lobbyists. The McClatchy report indicates that the FEC is interested in going beyond this.
Continue readingAsk Your Lawmaker
We're very pleased to announce that Sunlight grantee Capitol News Connection is launching today a new interactive and customizable widget that lets YOU be the journalist -- and hold power to account! You decide what you want to ask members of Congress and presidential candidates, see what other people are asking about, and vote on the questions you think are most important. CNC's award-winning public radio journalists will track down lawmakers and candidates on the campaign trail -- and get the answers you demand. Then, you can listen, comment, share and even embed the audio on your site. This is very cool.
Those using the widget include CNC public radio stations, public television sites, bloggers and social networking sites. To get the widget just go to www.askyourlawmaker.org/widget. Select the customization options you want -- you can display questions or answers -- by topic or state. You can listen and vote within the widget. Try it out -- and help spread the word! We want to get as many questions as possible, and aggregate as many voices as possible around each question: It's hard for a lawmaker to dodge a question asked by, say, 13,952 people in 17 states!
Update: Apparently NPR has taken down the widget from its site, for what may be technical fixes. We trust that will only be temporary.
Continue readingWorld Data Visualization
(From the Open House Project)
Broad access to fundamental data leads to compelling analysis. Here's a TED talk from Hans Rosling, where he gives a tour of the recent history of countries becoming industrialized, using visualizations built on data from the UN.
The history of representative democracy and government is waiting to be similarly told; here's a broad collection of data indexed on a world map, representing data sets about freedom and government (by Zachary Johnson). When these visualizations are easier to create, and free to those with an Internet connection, our collective ability to visualize societal trends and expressive freedom should continue to develop. What role will this play in shaping the continuing development of industrialized countries? Will a digital view of what we're up to lead to better policy?
Continue readingEncouraging Access to Committees
(from the Open House Project)
To encourage Congress to grant access to committee hearings, we've prepared this letter. (With the close help of Perla Ni of VoterWatch.)
I'm hoping that we can demonstrate some enthusiasm for what happens in committee hearings, since they're so essential to the legislative process, literally determining the content of our laws and the extent of Congress's oversight. To that end, I've also prepared a brief pledge via pledgebank, where one can pledge to look to committees for legislative information, but only if Congress will meet us halfway and provide access to its proceedings.
You can sign the pledge by visiting pledgebank, or you can also be a signatory to the letter by leaving a comment here.
Continue readingLocal Sunlight
This week I have highlights from
Turkey Sandwiches, Ron Paul, and Internet Democracy
In July 2003 Vice President Dick Cheney was in Columbia, South Carolina for a fancy sit-down lunch with 150 big-money donors willing to kick in the maximum $2,000 to the reelection campaign of Cheney and President George W. Bush. Dick Cheney was to raise $250,000 from this exclusive group of black-tie diners in one afternoon. This would be an ordinary event for any campaign and lost in the pages of history, but this fundraiser is remembered for another reason. And that reason can best be symbolized in the form of a turkey sandwich.
Prior to the Cheney fundraiser, supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean were gathered online at the Dean’s Blog for America trying to figure out ways that the campaign could continue its small donor driven campaign fundraising success. One idea floated about was for the campaign to try and match the Cheney fundraiser dollar-for-dollar in online donations. The day of Cheney’s fundraiser the campaign posted a picture of Dean, eating a turkey sandwich while blogging, on their site asking supporters to chip in what they could to match the black-tie Cheney event. By 12:30 the next day the campaign had raised over $500,000, or twice as much as the Cheney event netted.
Continue readingRead The Bill
If Rep. John Boehner hates that bills are getting pushed through without a chance to thoughtfully consider them, maybe he should support House Resolution 504, an effort to require that all bills be posted online for 72 hours before they are voted on. We do.
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