data.gov — big news regarding Federal accountability and transparency
Posted on May 21st, 2009 by Craig Newmark
Hey, the Obama folks are really serious about telling us how Washington operates and the role of money there.
This is a genuinely big advance in grassroots democracy.
They just launched data.gov, which will be a repository of downloadable government data on what's really going on. The deal is that you can write a web application which reaches into that data and make it easy for anyone to see what's happening.
(Well, by "you" I mean "nerd like me", if I was still technical.)
The Sunlight Foundation, the real big leader in accountability and transparency, just announced Apps for America 2: The Data.gov Challenge
I figure I should practice what I preach and have contributed a big chunk of the prize money.
Sunlight Labs director Clay Johnson just blogged more on this.
Disclosure: since the Sunlight folks are doing so much good, I've joined their Board.