Sunlight Foundation

Making Government Transparent and Accountable

The Sunlight Foundation uses cutting-edge technology and ideas to make government transparent and accountable. Underlying all of our efforts is a fundamental belief that increased transparency will improve the public's confidence in government

• 9 Beliefs at the Heart of Open Government

  By Jake Brewer on 02/09/10 @ 3:11 pm | 12 Comments

  It’s safe to say that the idea of Open Government or “Government 2.0″ – what it is, what it means, and how to bring it about – has become a national conversation among people in government, in the technology sector and in the media. Indeed, there is now a full blown movement to make government more open and transparent taking shape across the country. We’ve moved beyond debate about whether or not government information should be released to the public to HOW to release government data… How often? In what format? What to do with it once it’s out?

  That we’ve reached this point is an achievement not to be taken lightly. The long, often slow and frustrating years of groundwork that so many technologists, reporters and political thinkers have invested are actually paying off – in a big way. In just the last 6 months we’ve gotten both the President of the United States to talk about our issues in his State of the Union address and Jon Stewart talking about them on the Daily Show.

  Clearly the ears of the American public are starting to perk up – emphasis on starting - and the open government movement is beginning to move beyond insiders. (Continue reading…)

  

• GovFresh

  By Ellen Miller on 05/04/09 @ 8:12 pm | 0 Comments

  Over the weekend, GovFresh launched, a live feed of official news from U.S. Government via Twitter, YouTube, RSS, Facebook, Flickr accounts in one place. It provides live feeds from the White House, the Supreme Court, the House and Senate, seven departments and six agencies, and the Democratic and Republican National Committees, so far.

  Luke Fretwell, a San Francisco-based Web designer and developer, created GovFresh on his own. New media technology specialist Steve Lunceford tweeted that it’s “neat,” and I would agree. In another tweet, Steve described it as “a Friendfeed-like mirror of #gov20 feeds.”

  You can follow GovFresh via FriendFeed and Twitter as well.

  This is indeed a neat idea. Congrats to Luke for creating this useful new tool.

  Hat tip: Free Government Information.