Tag Archive: Uncategorized

Apply New Lobby Rules Across the Board

by Paul Blumenthal Mar 20, 2009 4:04 pm

After posting about President Obama’s announced new lobbying disclosure rules for the recovery funds, Ellen Miller, Sunlight Executive Director and... View Article

Obama Promises Much Tighter Lobbying Disclosure for Recovery Funds

by Paul Blumenthal Mar 20, 2009 2:06 pm

There are many, many problems with lobbying disclosure, but one of the greatest would have to be that lobbyists are... View Article

The Revolving Door Spins in CEO Pay Protector

by Paul Blumenthal Mar 20, 2009 1:23 pm

In the back-and-forth regarding who inserted the retroactive bonus immunity provision into the stimulus bill, we were repeatedly treated to... View Article

Show Us The Data: Most Wanted Federal Documents

by Ellen Miller Mar 20, 2009 11:14 am

On the occasion of Sunlight Week, our colleagues (and grantees) at the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and OpenTheGovernment.org... View Article

The Rise of Recovery.gov and the Virtuous Cycle of Transparency Innovation

by Greg Elin Mar 19, 2009 5:31 pm

In the short 30 days since the President signed the Recovery Act (aka Stimulus Bill) into law and Recovery.gov launched:

26 of 28 federal agencies currently handling stimulus dollars have launched websites at identical "/recovery" URLs (example: http://hhs.gov/recovery)
83 identically formatted .xls weekly reports were filed by agencies and are downloadable by reporting agency (generally 3 per agency)
42 states have launched their own recovery-related web sites with several adopting the "/recovery" meme (for example: http://www.maine.gov/recovery)
3,900 hits-per-second loads have been reported for Recovery.gov

These early stats suggest our federal government is headed for the Web 2.0 big leagues in tracking stimulus dollars. Even better, they suggest everyone else is fielding franchise teams and swinging for the fences. No doubt we are going to see a number of strike outs as different federal, state, and local authorities learn to communicate and play together using web-based protocols and practices. But we are also going to see some exciting home runs and grand slams, too.