You are absolutely correct. Transparency alone is only the first step. Citizens armed with information must take it upon themselves to take action. For this reason we have created a site that allows citizens to vote on every bill in congress and send those votes to their representatives. We hope to expand to state level as well.
Please see:
And thanks for the checklist. I’ll be using it to grade my local gov sites.
says:
Great post about the reasons for data openness in government, exactly what this group is about.
I’m interested in not only government information like spending, budgets, and contracts, but also in data the the government tracks that is public record but hard to obtain through FOIA requests: crime reports, car accident locations, building permits, zoning changes, restaurant health inspections, property values, home sales, etc.
I estimate that only 1 out of every 100,000 municipal datasets like this are available in any form online for citizens, leaving the average citizens no practical way to get at the information.
Let the sunshine in and let’s help the government make public information truly public.
You are absolutely correct. Transparency alone is only the first step. Citizens armed with information must take it upon themselves to take action. For this reason we have created a site that allows citizens to vote on every bill in congress and send those votes to their representatives. We hope to expand to state level as well.
Please see:
And thanks for the checklist. I’ll be using it to grade my local gov sites.
Great post about the reasons for data openness in government, exactly what this group is about.
I’m interested in not only government information like spending, budgets, and contracts, but also in data the the government tracks that is public record but hard to obtain through FOIA requests: crime reports, car accident locations, building permits, zoning changes, restaurant health inspections, property values, home sales, etc.
I estimate that only 1 out of every 100,000 municipal datasets like this are available in any form online for citizens, leaving the average citizens no practical way to get at the information.
Let the sunshine in and let’s help the government make public information truly public.