Knowing that risks to free expression on the Internet exist and are growing, the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), a Sunlight Foundation grantee, works to promote democratic values and constitutional liberties in the vortex of the information revolution. As part of that effort, our friends at CDT have launched The Internet in Transition, an effort to encourage citizen involvement in keeping the Net “open, innovative and free.”

They are working on a set of proposals for the Internet and technology policy. Those proposals include preserving free speech while protecting children online, protecting consumer privacy, keeping a balance between security and liberty, promoting global Internet freedom, keeping the net open to innovation, and promoting an open and transparent government. The document is a work in progress.

CDT is asking citizens to join them in the effort by reading and commenting on their proposals, hoping the group effort will strengthen the final document. In January of next year, CDT will present the blueprint to the new administration and Congress.

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Last week, the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and OMB Watch, both Sunlight Foundation grantees, released a report highlighting how many federal agencies’ databases and websites contain flaws making them hard to search with commonly used search engines. The report, "Hiding in Plain Sight: Why Important Government Information Cannot Be Found through Commercial Search Engines," shows how vital government information appears "invisible" to ordinary Americans using the Internet. Congress passed the E-Government Act of 2002 to promote the public’s access to government information and services. Based on this report, there a whole lot of work that still needs to be done.

The report not only points out the flaws in current government databases that make it hard, if not impossible, for ordinary citizens to find the data they are looking for, but it also provides fixes that would encourage greater accessibility of information by making it more searchable.

"Unquestionably, the E-Government Act has changed the way that the public interacts with the government," said Ari Schwartz, CDT’s deputy director, in a press release. "Unfortunately, despite the availability of an easy technological fix, many key governmental information sources remain ‘hidden in plain sight,’ from the very search engines that the public is most likely to use."

As Sean Moulton, OMB Watch’s federal information policy director, said in the release: whether the roadblock between the public and the information is caused by the fact that the agencies haven’t taken adequate steps to fix the problem, or that they are unaware of the problem, "In today’s Internet age, either answer is unacceptable."

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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.

The first grant of $140,000 to the Center for Media and Democracy, is to support the second year of the joint Sunlight Foundation/Center wiki on Congress - Congresspedia. The second year's work is building on the highly successful first year and will focus on growing and developing the community of Congresspedia users and editors and increasing the user-friendliness of the wiki.

The second grant of $55,000 will support the Center for Democracy and Technology's Open CRS project, to use the Internet to promote the distribution of Congressional Research Service reports to the public. This grant will allow CDT to make some major technical upgrades to the site to ensure complete and timely access to CRS reports, develop new features and functions, and launch a campaign to promote the site's availability and attract new partners.

The third, and final grant of this round, was for $22,000 to Taxpayers for Common Sense allow them to develop a comprehensive plan to integrate and advance the use of the Internet and related technologies into their overall work. This work will include an initial assessment and planning process to redesign TCS organizational web presence and online outreach, communication, and constituency development strategies.

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