3 “Sunny” Transparency Websites You Should Know About
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Sunshine Review
They’re “a non-profit organization dedicated to state and local government transparency. The Sunshine Review wiki collects and shares transparency information and uses a ‘10-point Transparency Checklist‘ to evaluate the content of every state and more than 5,000 local government websites.” (more about them/source; emphasis added)
Sunlight Foundation
It’s open government in action. Major elements of their work include the Sunlight Labs, Sunlight Reporting Group, Sunlight Live and the Open House Project (more about them/source; emphasis added).
Sunshine Week
It may be over for this year (see our posts for SunshineWeek), but the website is still loaded with information (such as related news and FOI links).
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Sunshine Week 2011—The Road Forward on Open Government Webcast
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Last week was Sunshine Week (promoting transparency of government… See: Why should ‘Sunshine Week’ matter to you?).
On Friday, several organizations put together an event with two panels to discuss open government.
Two years ago President Obama committed his Administration “to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government.” Toward this end, the Administration has issued policy changes: a new Memorandum on Freedom of Information Act and Attorney General Guidelines, a new Executive Order (EO) on Classified National Security Information, and a new EO on Controlled Unclassified Information. To help meet the goal of embedding openness in the government, the Administration also has taken steps to make information more available and usable by the public, including setting up Data.gov and requiring agencies to draw up plans to hard-wire openness into the way the government operates. Agencies have taken up the challenge, but more needs to be done.
During this event transparency experts from inside and outside government discussed how these initiatives are being put into practice — from both a policy and a technical standpoint — and what more we can and should expect the Administration to do to meet its goal. Panelists took questions from the live and viewing audience. (source)
Here’s archived video from that event:
(Please keep in mind that as always, we don’t necessarily endorse the organizations or views expressed in the video)
*Note: They did not use VideoMinutes (or MakeAMotion) to record, webcast, or archive the meeting video online.
HT Sunlight Foundation blog post for the reminder to look for the archive.
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Pew Research on “The Internet and Campaign 2010″
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The Pew Internet & American Life Project came out with a report this week on “The Internet and Campaign 2010“. I’m not sure how intentional it was, but the report came out during Sunshine Week.
Here’s some findings from the report (emphasis added):
- “54% of adults used the internet for political purposes in the last cycle, far surpassing the 2006 midterm contest.”
- Fully 73% of adult internet users (representing 54% of all US adults) went online to get news or information about the 2010 midterm elections, or to get involved in the campaign in one way or another. We refer to these individuals as “online political users” and our definition includes anyone who did at least one of the following activities in 2010:
- Get political news online – 58% of online adults looked online for news about politics or the 2010 campaigns, and 32% of online adults got most of their 2010 campaign news from online sources.
- Go online to take part in specific political activities, such as watch political videos, share election-related content or “fact check” political claims – 53% of adult internet users did at least one of the eleven online political activities we measured in 2010.
- Use Twitter or social networking sites for political purposes – One in five online adults (22%) used Twitter or a social networking site for political purposes in 2010.
- Taken together, 73% of online adults took part in at least one of these activities in 2010.”
Credit: Aaron Smith, The Internet and Campaign 2010″, 3/17/11, http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/The-Internet-and-Campaign-2010.aspx accessed 3/17 and 18, 2011.
(HT This @digiphile Tweet on Twitter and the blog post that it linked to)
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Sunshine Week News for Wed./Thurs.
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Usually this blog has Open Gov Links of the Week posted on Fridays… but this is Sunshine Week(!) and there has been a lot that has happened (even between yesterday and today) in the world of transparency. So here’s a special Thursday edition for Sunshine Week to satisfy your transparency appetite… (and if you’ve missed the previous posts on this blog for Sunshine Week, you can find them here)
The House Oversight Committee met this morning to discuss “The Freedom of Information Act: Crowd-Sourcing Government Oversight”
- According to part of the description of the meeting before it took place, “The hearing will afford the Committee an opportunity to fully examine some of the problems associated with FOIA’s design and implementation, as well as Executive Branch non-compliance.”
- Written testimonies can be found by clicking on the link for the panelists’ names.
- This is at least (to my knowledge) the 3rd Congressional hearing on an open government-related topic in the past week! (Here was one from the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday)
- *Special thanks to @digiphile for the heads up Tweet on Twitter!
“Everything you ever wanted to know about FOIA in 17 short videos” (HT)
- These YouTube videos were done by the Justice Department.
White House Blog: “Sunshine Week 2011 and Our Ongoing Commitment to Open Government”
- “Open government is a commitment, though, not a task. Thus the Administration’s efforts to promote open government are, as they should be, still ongoing. Nor is greater transparency desirable in every case and circumstance. Our government also owes its citizens, among other things, protection of their personal privacy and business confidentiality, effective law enforcement, and a strong national defense. That understood, the Administration’s commitment to open government, and the great progress it has made so far, are unmistakable.” (Steve Croley, the author, is Special Assistant to the President for Justice and Regulatory Policy)
- *Thanks to @SunshineWeek for pointing this out on their Tweet on Twitter and on their blog post.
“OMB Watch Analysis Finds Obama Administration Slowly Rebuilding Government’s FOIA Performance”
- “OMB Watch released an initial analysis of the Obama administration’s performance on Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) implementation based on federal agency annual reports under the act. Though some progress has been made, the analysis shows that the federal government is still in a rebuilding phase when it comes to FOIA openness.”
Senators “Leahy, Cornyn introduce Faster FOIA Act”(HT Virginia Coalition for Open Government email)
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Open Gov Links of the Week, Open Government
Report Card Ranks 50 States on Transparency of Spending
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Just in time for SunshineWeek… “Researchers at the United States Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) graded all 50 states on how well they provide online access to information about government spending. States were given “A” to “F” grades based on the characteristics of the online transparency systems they have created to provide information on contracts, subsidies and spending at quasi-public agencies.” (source)
What grade for transparency of spending did your state get?
According to a news-release from U.S. PIRG:
“The good news is that since last year’s Following the Money report, state governments across the country have become far more transparent about where the money goes,” explained Phineas Baxandall, Senior Analyst for Tax and Budget Policy at U.S. PIRG and co-author of the report. “But even the leading states still have a lot of room for improvement.”
Among the findings in the report:
- Six states that had no central transparency website last year launched such sites by January 2011. These were Arizona, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin.
- Nine states garnered “A” or “B” grades. These leading states – Kentucky, Texas, Indiana, Arizona, Louisiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio, and Oregon – provide information that is highly searchable, and include detailed data about government contracts, tax subsidies and grants to businesses.
- Thirty-one “emerging” states received a “C” and “D” grade.
- Ten “lagging” states received an “F.”
- Maine is the only state in the nation without a publicly accessible website providing checkbook-level information about government spending.
….
Click here to read Following the Money’s executive summary and to download a copy of the report, and click here to see an interactive web tool displaying the report’s findings.”
Another place that has grades for various factors relating to transparency is SunshineReview.org, who recently released it’s “Sunny Awards“.
The 2011 awards, which more than double last year’s number, recognize the best state and local government websites in America that exceeded transparency standards.
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