Here is this week's review of tweets deleted by U.S. politicians caught and archived by Politwoops.
Continue readingSunlight files FOIA request for full list of agency databases
The Sunlight Foundation has filed a new FOIA request, seeking information on which agencies truly complied with the White House's open data executive order -- and which are keeping their data secret.
Continue readingToday in #OpenGov 12/6/2013
A group is planning to walk across New Hampshire to push eventual presidential candidates to answer the question: "What are YOU going to do to end corruption in Washington?" Would you join NH Rebellion?
Continue readingMontgomery County’s Open Data Town Hall, the Town Hall of the Future
On Thursday November 21st, Montgomery County, Maryland hosted an Open Data Town Hall to solicit feedback from citizens about what data they would like to see prioritized for release online under Montgomery County’s open data law.
Continue readingNew Knight Foundation Report Reveals How Civic Tech is Funded
Today, the Knight Foundation, along with the data analytics firm Quid, released a fascinating analysis analyzing the financial investment in nonprofits and for-profit organizations that create civic technology apps and platforms through technology. If you include many of the new P2P platforms such as AirBnB and the like (which are private businesses not primarily focused on promoting civic outcomes), there has been a whopping $430 million invested in civic technology, including open government organizations. (Full disclosure, the Sunlight Foundation has received several grants from the Knight Foundation.) It is concerning that the bulk of venture capital and other non-philanthropic investment in civic technology goes toward companies whose primary goals are not to empower citizens in democratic engagement nor to foster government openness and accountability.
The big picture presented by Knight and Quid shows that there is momentum in growing an echelon of financial investors to buttress the nascent civic start-up movement. This peek behind the curtain of the philanthropic and commercial investment world is welcome transparency and very helpful analysis. Continue readingOpen Data Executive Order Compliance: The Bad and The Good.
The first major deadline for agency compliance with President Obama's open data Executive Order arrived this past Saturday. Agencies were required to, among other things, provide the Office of Management and Budget with an "Enterprise Data Inventory" and release a list of all their public data via a /data page on their websites.
We had hopes that some agencies might choose to publicly release their entire Enterprise Data Inventories, providing a full picture of their data holdings. Unfortunately, so far, that does not seem to have happened. Until the full inventories are available, the public will still be stuck in the dark, not knowing what we don’t know about government data holdings.
Nonetheless, most cabinet level agencies, as well as a number of independent agencies that were not required to comply, have taken steps to publicly fulfill the other aspects of the Executive Order. Levels of compliance have been varied, but we will try to highlight some of the worst and best examples below.
Continue readingRemember Sunlight this #GivingTuesday
First, there was Black Friday, then Cyber Monday and now there is #GivingTuesday, a day dedicated to inspiring individuals, families, communities and businesses to give back and to raise awareness about charitable activities. So, take this opportunity to give back to the opengov movement with a donation to Sunlight today!
So, in the midst of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, don’t forget to give back! Donate $10, $25, $50 or more to Sunlight! Whether it’s a little or a lot, participating in #GivingTuesday will bring us closer to the open government we seek while raising awareness about philanthropic activity worldwide.
Continue readingAnnouncing Sunlight’s international lobbying disclosure guidelines
With more and more civil society organizations in the open government universe recognizing that “thorny issues” -- such as political finance transparency or surveillance -- need to be tackled somewhat more vehemently, we are eager to seize the momentum and start a hopefully constructive dialogue around an embarrassingly under- or unregulated area: lobbying disclosure. A few weeks back, with the support of our friends at the Open Knowledge Foundation, we took the first steps to create a community of interested advocates, activists and academics, and launched a public working group around the world of influence.
Today, we are excited to announce our draft lobbying disclosure guidelines and invite the community to provide input on these recommendations.
Continue readingToday in #OpenGov 12/2/2013
National News
- There is a strong revolving door between the office of the United States Trade Representative and private sector jobs in the pharmaceutical, major media, and technology industries. (Washington Post)
- The SEC appears to be backing away from a proposal that would force public companies to disclose their political spending. The commission had included the proposal in their list of 2013 priorities, but it is nowhere to be found in their 2014 list. (Washington Post)
- Most members of Congress set up Leadership PACs in order to spread love and boost their standing within their own party. But, two recently elected lawmakers want to use their organizations to support candidates that "want to make government work and who want everyone at the table." (Roll Call)
- The Open Knowledge Foundation, along with the Open Data Institute has finalized a "memorandum of understanding" with the BBC. They are joining the Europeana Foundation, Open Data Institute, and Mozilla Foundation in pushing the BBC to commit to "open data and open standards." BBC representatives hailed the move as a sign that the organization is "here for the audience's interest and not just," their own. (Open Knowledge Blog)
- The Mayor of Honolulu, Hawaii signed an open data bill into law last week. The bill was first introduced in August and garnered support from the city's CIO. (Hawaii Open Data)
- Philadelphia Chief Data Officer Mark Headd teamed up with Textizen CEO Michelle Lee to pitch the idea that open data can help companies innovate at Interop, an IT conference in New York City. (Technical.ly Philly)
Rule behind the ‘Hobby Lobby’ case was the most commented
Today, the Supreme Court announced that it agreed to hear two cases around the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act. The SCOTUSblog writes:
The Court granted review of a government case (Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, 13-354) and a private business case (Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius, 13-356). Taking the Conestoga plea brought before the Court the claim that both religious owners of a business and the business itself have religious freedom rights. The Hobby Lobby case was keyed to rights under RFRA.Continue reading
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