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.

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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.

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Larry Lessig, renowned expert in intellectual property and Sunlight Advisory Board member, will launch his new "Change Congress" project in a Sunshine Week lecture on March 20. In this lecture — sponsored by Sunlight and Omidyar Network — Lessig will describe his decision to focus his academic interests on the issue of the systemic corruption of American democracy. He will explore the ways in which our democracy is threatened by corruption and ways we, as citizens, can respond.

The event will be held at the National Press Club from 1:30 to 3 PM on March 20th, in Murrow White and Lisagor Rooms and it will be Webcast.

Space is limited so RSVP soon.

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Sunlight is extremely happy to formally announce today an investment of $2 million from Omidyar Network, a mission-based organization established by Pam and Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay. This is the second such grant Sunlight received from Omidyar Network.

Omidyar Network’s investment will support Sunlight’s operations and grant-making to organizations that create "Web 2.0" tools that make information about the workings of Congress and the influence of money in politics more accessible to citizens. Since our founding in 2006, Sunlight has awarded more than $3.1 million to organizations who use the Internet to make Congress more open and accountable to the public. Read the full press release here.

We are also pleased to formally announce that Lawrence Lessig, renowned expert in intellectual property and Stanford University Law Professor, has joined our Advisory Board.

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We are so pleased today to announce an investment of $2 million from Omidyar Network in the Sunlight Foundation. The investment will enable us to increase the number of "transparency grants" we make and provide general support, particuarly for expanding the capacity of the work of our Sunlight Labs.

Sunlight and the Omidyar Network share a fundamental belief in the value of transparency, the potential for new technologies to connect individuals to both information and others who share their interests, and the ability for citizens to influence the issues that impact their lives. We really couldn't have found a better partner. This thrlling investment will enable us and our partners to make giant steps this year (just our second year of operation) to bring Congress into the 21st century, and make it more transparent.

The Omidyar Network is a mission-based organization established by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam.

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