OpenSecrets Open Data initiative is about to begin!

[Susi]

Hi Folks, OpenSecrets.org is going "open data" next week, and we at
the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics wanted you to be among
the first to know.

For the first time in CRP's 26-year history as Washington's premier
money-in-politics watchdog, we're making our most popular data
archives fully available to the public for download -- for FREE.
Putting our vast data on campaign finance, lobbying and the personal
finances of lawmakers in more hands will put more eyes on Washington.
More people counting cash will lead to more people making change.

OpenSecrets.org, a four-time Webby winner for best politics site, will
remain the go-to independent source for most people interested in
"following the money" -- curious citizens, journalists, activists and
others. But now the skilled data-diver can explore the information
that's already aggregated on OpenSecrets.org to its full depth. We
expect all sorts of mashups, maps and other cool projects to result
from this new capability -- all powered by CRP's data.

We're very grateful to the Sunlight Foundation for underwriting
OpenSecrets.org's OpenData initiative. The Center is making these
millions of records available under a Creative Commons Attribution-
Noncommercial-Share Alike license. We'll continue to offer CRP's data
to commercial users for a fee.

The public launch of OpenSecrets OpenData isn't until next week -- and
we'll put out a news release then -- but feel free to spread the word
now about what's coming. In the meantime, I'm happy to answer any
questions you have.

Susi