This morning the Heritage Foundation hosted a terrific panel of the primary conveners of the Sunlight sponsored Open House Project - John Wonderlich, Rob Bluey, Matt Stoller and David All. And while the conversation touched on some of the specific recommendations of the work, it was mostly a very articulate and thoughtful musing by the four 20-something leaders of the effort about how they marshaled the online collaborative effort across a sharp political divide on bringing the House into the 21st century. The genuine bipartisanship was hated by one right-wing blogger, but was defended by two of the conveners -- Rob Bluey and David All. Can't wait to hear what Stoller has to say.
Continue readingWe are opening the House
We just returned from a terrific press conference on the Hill where we released the results of the Open House Project. Rep. John Boehner (R. OH) and Rep. Brad Miller (D. NC) joined some of the collaborators of this project as we talked about our recommendations for bringing the House into this century and the collaborative, online way the project was conducted. We very much appreciated Boehner's and Miller's support as we did that of House Speaker Pelosi who sent a letter welcoming the report. C-SPAN covered the press conference and as soon as we know when it will be aired, we'll update this post.
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And the Winner Is …..
We had no idea what a tough task it would be to select a winner for the Mashup Contest we announced two months ago as a way to honor Sunshine Week, but it was. We had about a dozen fabulous entries - some very complex and sophisticated, some less so, but every single one of them was very effective. The staff was certainly glad that the burden for the final choices didn't rest with us.
Today we are announcing the winner is a mashup called "Unfluence". "Unfluence" was submitted as an entry by Greg Michalec and Skye Bender-deMoll. And while their mashup actually uses state campaign finance data (and the APIs developed by a Sunlight grantee - the Institute of on State Money and Politics), it is clear that the underlying code is directly applicable to federal politicians. In fact, the Center for Responsive Politics has been experimenting with similar network mapping. The more data that's available both from the government and the nonprofit sector in mashable forms, the more data can be examined from different perspectives and the more we know about Congress.
Continue readingOpenCongress. Open Source.
We are delighted to point you to OpenMass -- a new website that takes ourOpenCongress.org open source framework and applies it to Massachusetts legislation, legislators and news about issues in the state. As they say, imitation is the highest form of flattery. Forty-nine more states to go.
Update: Check out the Open Government movement in Pennsylvania at PassOpenRecords.org where a movement to push for new open records laws appears to be centered. This effort is sponsored by the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association. Join in the conversation.
Continue readingHappy Anniversary, Sunlight
It would have been a great one year anniversary present to have had the Senate's electronic filing bill pass today, but we're not going to let that rain on our parade as we pause, briefly, to celebrate the one year anniversary of Sunlight's public launch. Just 12 months ago, we announced the start up of Congresspedia and the results of national polling that demonstrated -- overwhelmingly -- the public's support for greater transparency in Congress. We feel like the efforts of our first year have lifted the lid off of what is really possible. Today we marveled at the good luck of the timing of our effort because it seems like our very presence at this time has galvanized more than we ever would have dreamed possible in our first year.
Continue readingSunlight is Moving Monday, April 16
We are all very excited about our move to new and larger space. The move actually begins mid-afternoon today, April 16, and while it should be completed before business tomorrow, we are all assuming that there will be disruptions for the next several days. Our computer systems are supposed to be back up and running on Tuesday the 17th. Phones will not operate before the end of the day on Wednesday, the 18th. And this web site should be unaffected by all. Since nothing ever goes as smoothly as planned, forgive the interruptions as we settle into our new headquarters. We'll be back in full operation as soon as possible.
Continue readingNews from Sunlight
We are making two annoucements this afternoon: a second round of grants for 2007 (including two grants from our Mini-grant program), and a new member of the Board of Directors -- Craig Newmark. Craig is the founder and customer service representative for Craigslist, and one of the initial members of our Advisory Board. Craig is a visionary, and he has an understanding of power of the Internet technology that is nearly unrivaled. We couldn't be happier to have him assume a more formal role in guiding the Sunlight Foundation.
We are also very excited about the grant making opportunities that have come our way. Continue readingChanges Afoot
If last year -- Sunlight's first year of operation -- was a little like being shot out of a cannon, it's hard to describe what the first quarter of this year has been like. Suffice it to say, we are moving at something beyond warp speed.
As a result we have some dramatic growth underway. Here's what's happening.
Our Sunlight Labs has become a core element of our work and we will dramatically expand its capacity this year. It started as an experiment in mid-2006 as a way to both support our grantees and experiment with technology ourselves. After an amazingly successful first year under the co-directorship of consultants Greg Elin and Micah Sifry, the Labs has become part of our cutting edge as our technology and software development arm, well beyond its original mandate. It's now evolving further to better support its expanded internal and external activities.
Greg Elin is becoming our consulting Chief Data Architect with responsibilities that include managing all API development with our partner organizations (a very high priority for us this year) and our own internal data products. He'll also be tackling the "names standardization" problem with other Labs staff. Micah Sifry and Andrew Rasiej of Personal Democracy Forum will continue in their valued role as strategic consultants to the Foundation and to the Labs.
Three New Grants
Just before I left town for a two-week break, Sunlight announced its first round of grants for 2007, totaling just over $200,000. On my return, I realized that we hadn't posted anything about them -- other than a press release -- and so our readers might have missed the news. We are staying the course in terms of the kind of investments were are making with the money going to organizations that are using new "Web 2.0" technology to further the organization's mission of putting information into citizens' hands to increase transparency in Congress. We believe that our grantees are on the cutting edge of work that will open up our legislative branch.
Continue readingOpenCongress.org
Sunlight is launching a new project this morning -- OpenCongress.org -- that we are very excited about. This is is joint effort with the amazing team from the Participatory Politics Foundation -- a group based in Worcester, Mass. that builds open-source software and web tools for civic engagement.
Think of this as a user-friendly Thomas, on steriods. We've brought together critically important information about what is happening in Congress --legislation and issue focused -- and combined that with what bloggers and the mainstream media are most talking about. We've added a component of social wisdom tracking what's hot and what's most-viewed on the site itself, along with what others are writing about. There are lots of links to other Sunlight projects like Congresspedia and Sunlight grantees like OpenSecrets.org. We are aiming to to offer a comprehensive, understandable, user-friendly snapshot of every bill and Member of Congress.
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