From CNN:
The good news: data from governments and other organizations is increasingly open and online. The bad news: it’s rather dull.
The result? A booming interest in data visualization, which can transform boring stats into compelling graphical presentations explaining our world.
Archive of posts filed under the Wikis, Mashups, & Web 2.0 category.
When it comes to making data sexy, you can’t be too graphic
San Francisco Innovations Showcase
From DataSF:
The DataSF App Showcase celebrates the innovators and innovations who are championing the Mayor’s vision of a more collaborative and open government. The public can browse examples of new ways in which Bay Area constituents are using City data to improve San Francisco.
Congress Returns, As Does an Improved Congress API
From the New York Times:
Congress returns from its August recess next week, and we’ve been busy adding new features and information to our Congress API. One of the bigger gaps we’ve filled is with the cosponsorship of bills: we’ve added two new responses to detail the bills cosponsored by an individual member, and all of [...]
The House and Senate’s Public — But Not Online — Documents
From the Sunlight Foundation:
Over the last month, Sunlight has examined the document collections of the Office of the House Clerk and Office of the Secretary of the Senate to find out what they have. There seems to be an even split between public documents that are available online and those which you have to visit [...]
Apps for America: The Finalists
From the Sunlight Foundation:
And then there were three. After 47 great entries, we have three finalists in the Apps for America contest, and now it is time for us to figure out the winners. After taking a look at the winners, there’s instructions on how to vote at the end of the post.
GovPulse.us
ThisWeKnow.org
DataMasher
Federal Courts Wary of Document-Sharing Plugin
From Wired:
The federal court system doesn’t seem to like Harlan Yu, or his fellow merry pranksters, who made a tool to free court documents from an unwieldy computer system that has a nasty habit of charging 8 cents a page for public documents.
In fact, the court system’s IT managers is warning that their browser plug-in [...]
Pro Publica and Sunlight Lift the Lid on Foreign Lobbying
From the Sunlight Foundation:
Former government officials in the pay of foreign interests. Lobbyists introducing foreign military officials to defense contractors. Foreign agents descending on Capitol Hill to push the policy objectives of the governments that employ them…
That’s just some of what you’ll find in the Foreign Lobbyist Influence Tracker, a joint project of the ProPublica [...]
Red Flags Raised By Web 2.0 Contracts
From the National Journal:
The U.S. government’s contracts with Internet companies for video, photo sharing and other Web 2.0 services may have ignored key privacy obligations of federal agencies, according the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the group show that the General Services Administration moved ahead with [...]
RECAP(ing) PACER
From the Center for Democracy & Technology:
A new project from Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy aims to “turn PACER around” with a Firefox extension called RECAP. This extension is crowd-sourcing the task of making documents available, letting users know when a document can be had for free at the RECAP archive and letting [...]
Watchdog Groups Release Database Detailing Earmarks and Campaign Contributions
From OpenSecrets.org:
Two of Washington, D.C.’s most reliable and respected nonpartisan watchdogs joined forces today and released a comprehensive database linking campaign contributions with earmarked spending by lawmakers.
Taxpayers for Common Sense, a national budget watchdog, provided data documenting more than 20,000 earmarked spending provisions worth over $35 billion. The Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks money-in-politics [...]