This is very cool. Our friends at VoterWatch have just launched a new ‘Transparency Recap‘ — a regularly updated overview of what bloggers are saying about government transparency and accountability. In their first roundup, VoterWatch highlights Sunlight’s latest project, PublicMarkup.org (thanks!), a post from Free Government Information on a report about the National Archives’ plan to provide online access to the Founding Fathers papers, All Things Whistleblower’s reporting on the raid on the Office of the Special Counsel and on the home of Special Counsel Scott Bloch and the soft launch of the Center for Responsive Politics’ newly redesigned OpenSecrets.org site.

We love roundups like this for keeping updated on the news that matters the most. Make sure to add VoterWatch to your feeds!

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In the month since PublicMarkup.org launched, we’ve gotten 121 comments on our draft reform legislation, the Transparency in Government Act of 2008. The media and blog coverage has been overwhelmingly favorable, but not without a healthy dose of skepticism.

The main questions we’ve faced attempt to locate the bill within a traditional reform process: Who will sponsor it? When will it pass? What are its chances?

As I wrote when we started encountering these hesitations,

As it stands now, though, we’re happy to not have all the answers about where the bill is going. Just like legislation itself, we’re not pretending to know the best strategy for the bill, and we recognize that best ideas will be the ones that can benefit from a large community of experts and stakeholders.

Now that we’ve gotten some real feedback about the bill’s provisions, we can make some decisions about how to advocate for the package’s implementation. (more)

We’re delighted by the value of the comments. The comments repeatedly point out specific improvements or suggestions that we’ll be glad to integrate into a new version of the bill. Participants have suggested everything from wording changes to improvements for the interface and Web site. We’re also happy to see public proof that broad scrutiny can have a constructive influence on legislative work.

To integrate the community’s suggestions, we’ve decided to let comments open for about another two weeks, and to then craft a new version of the legislation, taking suggestions into account. We want to be sure that public involvement is credited for the improvements, continue to allow at least general commentary on the new version after it’s prepared.

Thanks again to everyone who has participated, and if you have more feedback to offer, you have until about May 19th to leave it!

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We were delighted to hear that Tim O’Reilly brought up the Sunlight Foundation, and PublicMarkup.org in particular, during his keynote address to the Web 2.0 Expo (where you might be able to spot some Sunlight Labs staff, if you’re attending).

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The first week of PublicMarkup.org’s launch has exceeded our expectations.

As I write this post, there are now 63 comments on our draft legislation, which you can now keep track of through an RSS feed. While many of the posts come from allies familiar to Sunlight, we’re delighted to find excellent, new ideas throughout the comments. Interest in congressional information reaches well beyond the inside-the-beltway advocacy community, and we’re happy to provide a forum for substantive reform ideas.

Talking with members of the press has been really enjoyable too, especially as they try to use traditional approaches to writing about legislation. The initial questions tend not to quite fit with a model of advocacy that is entirely open, so questions like "who is sponsoring it?" or "when might they vote on it?" tend to miss the mark. Questions like "What would constitute a success?", or "Why aren’t other organizations doing this sort of thing?" might be better starting places. Conducting advocacy in the open is a rather new idea, though, so we’ll have to develop some new ideas together about what constitutes consensus, success, and a productive drafting process.

As it stands now, though, we’re happy to not have all the answers about where the bill is going. Just like legislation itself, we’re not pretending to know the best strategy for the bill, and we recognize that best ideas will be the ones that can benefit from a large community of experts and stakeholders.

One thing is clear: if PublicMarkup.org’s second week is anything like its first, our reform ideas — and the open advocacy strategy we’re using to develop them — will both have very bright futures.

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In Sarah Lai Striland’s write-up of PublicMarkup.org’s launch yesterday, on the Wired Threat Level blog, she manages to do something rather remarkable. She links to one of the bill’s provisions:

One idea from Sunlight that all journalists are sure to welcome: Limiting the time government agencies can delay fulfilling Freedom of Information Act requests. Sunlight suggests implementing a rule that would force government agencies to fulfill such requests within 60 days of the requests’ original due dates.

All she did was hyperlink, which is regular fare on blogs. This is rather extraordinary, however, because the links takes you to the actual provision of a piece of legislation. As Congressional legislation is currently published, this is nearly impossible, as bills are published in html or in pdf formats, erecting a barrier to substantial analysis and discussion. Would legislation be different if all news stories and discussion of them were easily traced to the actual text of the bill, or if you could find your way from the bill other relevant analysis and context?

Small, useful, practical steps online lead to enormously different results, and make new kinds of engagement possible.

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