Sunlight Foundation Update
By The Sunlight Foundation
In this month's Sunlight Foundation/ Congresspedia update we wanted to
alert you to a few new tools, prizes and grants, as well as a plea to
help us rate members of Congress on how useful their websites are to
constituents.
–Items–
1. New “Money in politics” section in Congresspedia profiles helps illuminate the ties that bind
2. Sunlight Foundation launches OpenCongress
3. Win a $2,000 cash prize for having the best mashup website on Congress!
4. Rate your member of Congress' website for transparency (or self-promotion)
5. Sunlight Foundation now accepting applications from local groups for mini-grants
1. New “Money in politics” section in Congresspedia profiles helps illuminate the ties that bind
Congresspedia's
crack team of interns has just finished installing a new “Money in
politics” section in each member of Congress profile. The section
provides links to several databases at the Center for Responsive
Politics' OpenSecrets site that document the campaign contributions,
private travel and personal finances of members. We're also linking to
a brand new database that will actually show you the former staffers of
a member who turned lobbyist (and who they lobby for). What we're most
proud of, however, is an innovative new live feed of data from CRP of
each member's top 2006 campaign contributors. As soon as the 2008 data
comes out we'll be syndicating that as well.
You can find the money-in-politics section on each member's page. Here's the listing by state:
2. Sunlight Foundation launches OpenCongress
Congresspedia’s co-parent, the Sunlight Foundation, has just launched a new project, OpenCongress.org.
The site was envisioned as an actually functional version of the
Library of Congress' THOMAS legislative information website combined
with what bloggers and mainstream media are saying for all kinds of
Web2.0 goodness.
The site includes:
* Official government information from Thomas, made available by GovTrack.us.
* News and blog coverage of Congress from Google News and Technorati.
* Links to profiles of each Member of Congress on Congresspedia.
* Campaign contribution information from the non-profit OpenSecrets.org.
* The
Congress Gossip Blog, written by OpenCongress site editors, a blog that
highlights useful news & blog reporting from around the web.
3. Win a $2,000 cash prize for having the best mashup website on Congress!
To
celebrate Sunshine Week (March 12-19th), the Sunlight Foundation is
offering a $2,000 prize for the best mashup website that displays
information about Congress. Websites will be judged on their
creativity, their delightfulness, and how effectively they share
information about Congress.
This
contest was inspired by the explosion of simple mashups in the last
year, and Sunlight’s commitment to using new tools to make Congress
more transparent. There are many sources of raw data about Congress,
but not all of them (sadly) have open APIs, so we leave it up to you to
figure out how to take their data and do something fun and informative
with it. Last year, Sunlight Labs mashed up a database of earmarks in
the Labor and Health and Human Services Bill with Google Maps, so that
people could navigate a map of the United States covered with icons
representing earmarks, in the course learning more about those
earmarks. We're hoping to see more of that kind of fun and informative
project.
Esther Dyson , Craig Newmark and Jimmy Wales have signed up to judge the contest. Deadline is March 12th. More details are available here.
4. Rate your member of Congress' website for transparency (or self-promotion)
The
Sunlight Foundation has set up a rating system for constituents to
evaluate the websites of their members of Congress to determine whether
they're using public funds to create tools for transparency or vehicles
for self promotion. So far, citizen journalists have evaluated more
than 430 congressional Web sites, determining whether members provide
online information on their official acts, from their legally required
disclosure forms, or make additional efforts to be transparent and
accountable. When the survey is complete we will post the results on
the members' Congresspedia pages as a very public report card.
We've
only got 100 members left to go. Help put us over the top by taking the
survey or by urging your readers to do so. Even if your members have
already been evaluated, multiple ratings for every member would help us
get a better picture of their efforts. Go here for more information
And thank you!
5. Sunlight Foundation now accepting applications from local groups for mini-grants on increasing citizen power.
For the
second year, the Sunlight Foundation is offering grants of $1,000 to
$5,000 for local groups that have creative ideas for changing the
relationship between elected federal representatives and the people
they represent. Successful applicants will receive the grant,
consulting and strategic support, and networking opportunities. The
goal is to provide that extra element that takes a project from good to
great — server space, a video camera, or access to polling data — or
provide the seed that makes a new project viable. Projects could range
from citizen media, to creative use of the internet to engage citizens
in watchdogging, to opening up new ways of communicating with federal
lawmakers to creative mapping of lawmakers' activities.
Applications
are encouraged from existing small local nonprofits and websites,
offshoots of national groups, individuals, and informal groups of
citizens. Details can be found here
Blog For Iowa 
Projects will be judged on how closely they fit with Sunlight's purposes of using technology to enable citizens to learn more about what their elected representatives are doing, reducing corruption, and ensuring greater transparency. They will also be judged on their creativity, and their ability to grow or be replicated. As a general rule, we will not fund salaries or general overhead expenses, but will fund technological upgrades.
LikeLike
I am glad to post my views and points in this blog, but I must say that webmaster of this blog has done a very great job to make his blog more informative and more discussable but unfortunately everthing is same here that more than 80% in this and other blogs
artpromcompany.com
LikeLike
This 2000$ can be put to better use. How about the winner of the contest will be the one donating the money to kids in need.
LikeLike