Since talk of a stimulus, since a sudden renewed interest in open information, things in DC have been exciting in ways I can’t even begin to describe. If the rise in projects tracking the bailout is any indication, there’s starting to be a shift in the way people are holding their government accountable for its spending. And for good reason–we’ve always been afforded that right by the Constitution, we’ve just never really had the technology to make it happen.
Now that we do, and now that we’re discovering exactly how much we can do with the web, it is exciting to be in the middle of things, to be witness to groundbreaking efforts at government transparency such as WhiteHouse.gov and Recovery.gov. Even so, never before has it been more important to continue bringing participation to the grassroots level, to serve as an even greater check and balance. I’ve been following Apps for America, a project spearheaded by the Sunlight Foundation, which provides access to Congressional databases for developers to work on mashing-up and making sense of for the public to see. The more I see projects like this, the more I regret not having the technical skills to be able to contribute. But where people like you and me matter is in keeping the conversation going and ensuring that what comes out of it all is put to good use. After all, a tool that makes sense of data is only as good as the action that comes out of it.
It is my hope that one day, we can bring it all home too.
Filed under: open government
