Sunlight Foundation

Here are a few of the more interesting media mentions of Sunlight and our friends and grantees from this week:

Various media outlets and bloggers, including the likes of CNET.com, the Associated Press, the National Journal, Lawrence Lessig and Craig Newmark, have covered and congratulated the Center for Responsive Politics’ (CRP) for making its data records from OpenSecrets.org free for anyone to download. The Journal’s “Tech Daily Dose” column reported that more than 120 people had downloaded bulk data within the first 24 hours of CRP opening up its archives.

The Washington Post’s “The Reliable Source” column highlighted Capitol Words, which “slices and dices the entirety of the Congressional Record for your searching pleasure,” they write. McClatchy’s David Lightman reported that, in light of the financial crisis, words you would expect to be used by congressional lawmakers often, such as recession, bailout, stimulus and deficit do not crack the top 30 most frequently uttered terms so far this year. And Daphne Ritter with the New York Post looks at the top words used by several lawmakers from the Empire State’s congressional delegation.

Alice Lipowicz with Federal Computer Week used OpenCongress data in writing about how only 10 congressional lawmakers (four senators and six reps) post their daily schedules on their official Web sites. New York Newsday editorialized about how Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) is blazing a trail in her congressional career by posting her schedule and personal financial disclosure reports online. “While (congressional lawmakers are) at it, they should make sure that information is easy to locate, archived and searchable, so that watchful voters can track, over time, the lobbyists and interest groups bending an official’s ear,” the editors wrote.

Last week, Ryan Singel at Wired’s “Epicenter” blog wrote about Sunlight Labs‘ contest Apps for America, and asked his readers to vote for their favorites. This week, he reported back on the response he received, and issued what he terms the “Epicenter Reader’s Choice award.”

(Read More…)

On Tuesday, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the 13th annual the Webby Awards, “the Oscars of the Internet.” The academy selects the nominees and winners of what has been termed “the Internet’s highest honor.” And like in past years, a number of Sunlight’s friends and grantees received nominations. I know that in naming a few I will miss others. Sorry if I didn’t catch all our friends!

The Center for Responsive Politics’ newly redesigned OpenSecrets.org received a nomination in the category of best politics site of 2009. If they were to win, it would be their fifth Webby. The academy nominated Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’s (CREW) site GovernmentDocs.org, which allows users to easily brouse and search FOIA documents, has been nominated for a Webby in the “Government” category.  (Sunlight has funded both those projects.) In the “Activism” category, Why Tuesday? received a nomination.

In the “Online Film and Video” section’s “News and Politics: Individual Episode” category, American News Project, founded and run by my friend and former colleague Nick Penniman, received a nomination for their investigation titled “Iraq and Drop Weapons.”

The academy decides who the winners will be, but the “People’s Voice” Webby Award is decided by people who go to their site and vote. So, from now till the end of this month, each of us can cast a ballot for the “People’s Voice” award. You can find your own “People’s Voice” ballot here. Lawrence Lessig said OpenSecrets gets his vote.

Congrats to all the nominees!

Our friend Carl Malamud, president and CEO of PublicResource.Org, which works for the publication of public domain information from local, state, and federal government agencies, has embarked on a new campaign. He’s “running” for the position of Public Printer of the United States, the head of the Government Printing Office (GPO).  Sounds novel, eh, but Carl’s campaign, Yes We Scan, is inspired by Augustus E. Giegengack, a working printer who ran a successful campaign to convinced President Franklin Roosevelt to appoint him as head of the GPO back in 1933. Carl hopes to similarly convince President Obama to appoint him as the public printer. “If I were given the honor to be nominated by the President and the further honor to be confirmed by the Senate, my platform for revitalizing the GPO and rebooting .gov is spelled out in a detailed series of policy papers.”

(Read More…)

Earlier today, Lawrence Lessig spoke about Change Congress at the Free Press’ fourth annual National Conference for Media Reform, being held this year in Minneapolis. As always, Larry gave a killer speech. You can watch an earlier speech he gave at the National Press Club in March when he launched Change Congress here. Which reminds me…

Not to be missed: In the current edition of The Nation, Christopher Hayes, the magazine’s Washington editor, profiles Larry and Change Congress. It’s an extensive profile and a good read. (And I say this not only because he quotes me!) You don’t have to take my word for it, Cory Doctorow called the profile "fantastic." Hayes writes "playing David to various Goliaths (armed with a laptop as slingshot) is the defining narrative of Lessig’s career." If you’re a Lessig fan, it’s a must read.  If you’re unfamiliar with this bona fide and burgeoning cult hero, check it out…And join the revolution!

Everyone loves Professor Larry Lessig’s lectures. He’s known for his impressive keynote presentations. (I know that sounds like an oxymoron but trust me in this case it’s not). He always leaves the rest of us wondering how we can emulate his delivery skills. And mostly, we can’t.

His recent talks about his latest project — Change Congress — don’t disappoint. And now he’s making it all available for remixing. Dig in here.

(Full disclosure: Larry serves on Sunlight’s advisory board.)

As promised, here’s video of Lessig’s Sunshine Week lecture, sponsored by Sunlight and Omidyar Network:

Official Footage from National Press Club:


Sunlight Footage:

Audio from the Change Congress lecture (mp3, 34mb)

Lawrence Lessig, Stanford University law professor and world-renowned expert in intellectual property, is announcing that he’s going to invest a significant amount of his time and energy confronting the pervasive and corruptive influence of money in our democracy. You may have heard of the recent Draft Lessig movement that almost convinced him to run for Congress. He ultimately decided not to make the run, but he’s not retreating from the fight.

Today, at a lecture here in Washington, sponsored by Sunlight and Omidyar Network, he’s launching the ChangeCongress project where he’ll focus his academic interests on the issue of the systemic corruption of American democracy. Lessig will outline his hopes for ChangeCongress and how it will help citizens reclaim their democracy from the culture of corruption.

Lessig will give his lecture at 1:30 p.m. (Eastern Time) today at the National Press Club. We are very proud that Lessig recently joined Sunlight’s advisory board, where he’s helping us stay on the vanguard of using technology to promote a transparent and open government. If you can’t make it to the lecture you can watch the Web cast.

We’re continuing the Sunshine Week festivities with two events dedicated to promoting a more open government. We invite you to join us, and for those of you who can’t make it to Washington, DC, we encourage you to watch the webcasts of the events.

Today at 1pm EDT, in conjunction with Open the Government, Greg Elin of Sunlight Labs will moderate a panel to demonstrate new ways nonprofits have made government data open and useful to the public. Panelists include:

• Sheila Krumholz of Center for Responsive Politics
• David Moore of OpenCongress.org
• Sean Moulton of FedSpending.org
• Daniel X. O’Neil of EveryBlock

The event will be held in the Holeman Lounge of the National Press Club in DC, but you can watch it live online. (You’ll need to register first. The registration page is the same page you’ll visit to view the webcast.)

Then tomorrow at 1:30 EDT, Sunlight and Omidyar Network will host a press briefing featuring Lawrence Lessig, who will announce the launch of his new Change Congress project. Lessig, renowned expert in intellectual property, founder of Creative Commons and Sunlight Advisory Board member, recently changed his mission to combat the influence of money in American democracy. The event will be held in the Murrow, White and Lisagor rooms of the National Press Club in Washington, and will be webcast here.

Hope you can join us!

It’s Sunshine Week here in DC and, well, the sun is shining which is an auspicious beginning. This is a hugely important national initiative launched six years ago about the importance of open government and freedom of information. How important? According to a Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University survey released today just 4% of the surveyed Americans believe the federal government is very open — and 44% believe it is very secretive.

Participants in Sunshine Week activities which are held throughout the country include print, broadcast and online news media, civic groups, libraries, non-profits, schools and others interested in the public’s right to know. Here in D.C. there are two panels on Wednesday at the National Press Club plus a lecture by Professor Lawrence Lessig that Sunlight and Omidyar Network are sponsoring on Thursday. More details tomorrow on both of these.

In honor of Sunshine Week one of our grantees, the National Institute on Money in State Politics, has launched its Legislative Committee Analysis Tool, or CAT, which organizes campaign-finance data by the major legislative committees in each state. Here’s an example of what you can find. This new tool uses Project Vote Smart’s APIs for committee assignments. (The Institute’s own APIs are here.) You’ll NIMSP also links to candidate biographies. Look for links to candidate scorecards and bills shortly.

Next up for these folks who focus on money in state politics: zip code lookups paired with Legislative District Boundary Maps and analyses; a 50-state Lobbyist Link tool that will show where lobbyists are focusing their giving.

Chris Soghoian writes at his blog Surveillance State about how Capitol Hill just got its first computer geek lawmaker.  Last Saturday, Bill Foster, a physicist with a Ph.D. from Harvard, won a special election to replace former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who resigned late last year. Here’s a lawmaker who no doubt understands the power of technology for  Democratic renewal.

Lawrence Lessig writes that Foster is "the kind of CHANGE Congress needs." 

And Foster’s already had an impact.  Tuesday evening, Foster cast what was quite possibly the deciding vote on H.Res.895, which would establish an Office of Congressional Ethics. Nice start.