[ALL] The Goals and Vision of the Campaign
Noah Kunin
feedback. On day 1 of our wiki's existence: [ http://publicequalsonline.pbworks.com/
] we received feedback on the "Goals and Vision" of the campaign:
[ http://publicequalsonline.pbworks.com/Goals-and-Vision ] - I've
already promoted one suggestion by David Peterson to be part of the
actual page.
We began with three goals:
* Make transparency a national demand that candidates, elected
officials, and lobbyists cannot avoid and must respond to
* Build a national movement of sustained supporters demanding
that government and “influence” information be available online
and in real time
* Pass legislation resulting in government information being
online and in real-time
While the order of those steps won't happen the same everywhere (NM
being an exception, having already passed IMHO some great legislation
this year) in most places we're still on the first step: ensuring
there is demand for transparency at levels of government.
An additional goal was added once we opened up the wiki:
* Make data a national asset that benefits everyone
What is meant by asset? In many cases the data reveled by transparency
might be interesting but isn't actionable: whether in a personal,
political, social or economic sense. We're already giving notes to
the administration on this issue - read Ellen Miller's post here:
[ http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2010/02/03/improvements-needed-for-high-value-datasets-on-data-gov/
]
Often we'll need to do this ourselves: whether by making mock up
examples of how to use data in a person's everyday life, making an
actual application or featuring groups and businesses that are already
using data opened up by transparency.
As the campaign progresses, keep an eye out for ideas and people using
open data in a concrete way. And if you have an idea, be sure to
share it with the group!
In the meantime, how should these Goals and Vision be expanded or
changed?
Nisha
Noah thanks for this email. This is all great and thanks to David for
adding it. I really like how he phrased it "Make data a national
asset that benefits everyone" this is exactly what it should be.
This is why the local and state level is so important to me. There is
a lot of information that comes out of the federal government and
there is no way to follow it and see how it affects people at the
local level. This is why the stimulus disclosure was so interesting.
How did this huge government spending project create jobs in my town?
That is meaningful data. It has moved the conversation to things like
data quality and faster disclosure. Which haven't been talked about
it.
This makes me wonder if there are other projects that you can drill
down and find out how the money gets disbursed to the county level.
Does anyone know any?
Nisha
> [http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2010/02/03/improvements-needed-for...
Jessy Cowan-sharp
Point of note: did you make the acronym for this list COG on purpose? :)
--
Jessy Cowan-Sharp
w: http://nebula.nasa.gov
p: http://blog.quaternio.net
Nisha Thompson
COG! Yes because we are the little teeth moving the gears of transparency! :-)
Ok enough of that.
Jessy thanks so much for this email. You cover a lot but I want to make sure to address one of the major points. You are correct this is not a one sided fight. We do need a balance and make sure we include the people in government who want better. This is why identifying allies in government should be a major part of this venture.
When I was organizing a neighborhood group in Cambridge, MA one of the most powerful things I could do for frustrated citizens was to introduce them to a person in government. If someone had a problem with how the trash was collected when you introduce them to the person in charge of trash collection it makes a major difference. You now have a face and name associated with the problem and a place to go to find a solution. We need to be forging relationships with people who want government to change and the employees who want to change things but might need a little leverage to change political will.
I think a good first step is to find a way to get people inside government who want a change out and let them meet people who will support their efforts for more transparency.
Jessy what do you think the best way to do this is? A Happy Hour? Meetup? Put them on this google group? TransparencyCamp? We can do all these things and more.
Nisha
Andrea Schneider
Jessy Cowan-sharp
Nisha Thompson
This email made me smile. :-)
I really really like this idea, I feel like this is an ambitious undertaking. Maybe something we can look into is "Meet Your CIO Conference Calls." If your county, town, or state have a CIO then maybe we can do a question answer session and see where the data issues are. And then we can look into expanding to a buddy system.
Right now the best resource I can think of for this is GovLoop (http://www.govloop.com/). GovLoop is a social networking site for government employees and is a way for them to connect with each other and learn about what is going on at difference levels. Maybe we can brainstorm how best to use that community.
Or are there other communities that are for government employees who are working for more transparency. I know there is a google group called Munigov for municiple level employees.
Maybe we can brainstorm how best to collect and use these communities.
Nisha
_____________________________________
Outreach Coordinator and Online Organizer
Sunlight Foundation
www.sunlightfoundation.com
1818 N Street NW
Suite 410
Washington DC 20036
ntho...@sunlightfoundation.com
202-742-1520 x231
twitter.com/sunlightnetwork
facebook: Nisha Thompson
Edwin Bender
Re: “pair up those within government who are interested...”
Here’s a link to a site that is attempting to bring together data from city and state politics.
http://opencampaigns.com/about
They’ve created working relationships with San Francisco disclosure folks and use the Institute’s APIs for a combined look.
This is exactly the model that will not only increase the quality and quantity of information available to the public, but will help those trapped in officialdom to argue for the public’s right to access.
Ed
On 2/9/10 4:24 PM, "Nisha Thompson" <ntho...@sunlightfoundation.com> wrote:
Jessy,
This email made me smile. :-)
I really really like this idea, I feel like this is an ambitious undertaking. Maybe something we can look into is "Meet Your CIO Conference Calls." If your county, town, or state have a CIO then maybe we can do a question answer session and see where the data issues are. And then we can look into expanding to a buddy system.
Right now the best resource I can think of for this is GovLoop (http://www.govloop.com/). GovLoop is a social networking site for government employees and is a way for them to connect with each other and learn about what is going on at difference levels. Maybe we can brainstorm how best to use that community.
Or are there other communities that are for government employees who are working for more transparency. I know there is a google group called Munigov for municiple level employees.
Maybe we can brainstorm how best to collect and use these communities.
Nisha
On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 3:16 PM, Jessy Cowan-sharp <jessy.co...@gmail.com> wrote:
ok--- on the "connecting people inside and outside government front," what if we actually set up a buddy-type system, where we offer to pair up those within government who are interested, with an external 'buddy' in the transparency movement? this person could become a personal connection, a go-to person for questions or concerns before having to expose those sentiments to a broader audience, a "safe place" etc. maybe this could this campaign feel less like an offensive fight, and more like a collaborative effort?
in the other direction, the "external" folks would have someone they could ping internally about questions or concerns, especially as a possible alternative to (or at least first step before), say, writing a scathing article. a way to say, this action didn't make sense, is there something we're missing? or even, wow this action was really amazing-- how did you accomplish it!
a buddy system for transparency :). thoughts?
jessy
On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 12:56 AM, Andrea Schneider <pearlre...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,
I agree with connecting local people with local resources. Having worked in government it can make a huge difference if you actually know the person or someone has made the introduction. I'm a little worried about the assumption that people who care and want to make change can "get out". While they may want to help they may not be able to because of internal organizational issues. That can be management with serious control issues or a policy. We may underestimate the power of people who are invested in keeping things the way they are and have been.
These are unspoken problems, not easily discussed and very difficult for those inside an agency and organization who want to do things differently. I've been concerned that some of what we are interested in doing will get stopped by bureaucrats who have out lived many administrations and know how to make sure they keep their spot. This isn't everywhere or every agency, but lets not underestimate the ability of internal dynamics to block change. I do think the OGD and the need for all kinds of data and information, public access and accountability puts serious pressure on agencies and may pull back the curtain on some fairly dysfunctional problems. I hope so.
These internal forces are rarely considered by the public when things don't happen. Most people will look to the leader and not at the implementation side of the equation. Change can be stopped also by lack of skill, knowledge, insight or know-how. It will occur at the operational and tactical levels. I think it's useful to think about these dynamics, as we look for and need internal organizational changes, which will support OGD and all it implies. I want to suggest organizational audits to flush out some of these issues. It's never been done before and could exert needed pressure. At least I'd like the administration to really think about this and not just trust the new directors to make all the changes, they may need a hand.
I really liked what Jessy said and think he makes excellent points. My two cents...
Andrea
On Feb 4, 2010, at 12:18 PM, Nisha Thompson wrote:
COG! Yes because we are the little teeth <http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=define%3A+cog&aq=0&aqi=l1g1&oq=cog+definit> moving the gears of transparency! :-)
Ok enough of that.
Jessy thanks so much for this email. You cover a lot but I want to make sure to address one of the major points. You are correct this is not a one sided fight. We do need a balance and make sure we include the people in government who want better. This is why identifying allies in government should be a major part of this venture.
When I was organizing a neighborhood group in Cambridge, MA one of the most powerful things I could do for frustrated citizens was to introduce them to a person in government. If someone had a problem with how the trash was collected when you introduce them to the person in charge of trash collection it makes a major difference. You now have a face and name associated with the problem and a place to go to find a solution. We need to be forging relationships with people who want government to change and the employees who want to change things but might need a little leverage to change political will.
I think a good first step is to find a way to get people inside government who want a change out and let them meet people who will support their efforts for more transparency.
Jessy what do you think the best way to do this is? A Happy Hour? Meetup? Put them on this google group? TransparencyCamp? We can do all these things and more.
Nisha
From: citizens-f...@googlegroups.com [mailto:citizens-f...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Jessy Cowan-sharp
Sent: Thursday, February 04, 2010 1:13 PM
To: citizens-f...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [COG] Re: The Goals and Vision of the Campaign
Hi everyone,
I would propose an additional goal to create increase *consumption* of transparency-related information, in addition to increasing demand. This rewards release of data by showing that people will really use it, providing examples of why it is valuable, and, ultimately, leads to a virtuous cycle for release and use. At the moment, many of the data sets on data.gov <http://data.gov/> are really answers looking for a question. Let's show how the good data can be used, and guide the release of better defined and more useful data. Part of what this means is that we have to be innovators/leading thinkers about what exactly open government and transparency is useful for, besides just accountability. Sunlight Labs of course has been a huge leader here already. I think this would balance out the other goals and help to reinforce them.
I am a bit ambivalent on the term 'campaign' and in general the notion of "demanding." As someone who's worked a lot on transparency from the inside and outside, I can assure you it's not only a matter of demanding loud or elegantly enough. Many people (of course, not all) inside government want to see greater transparency, too. In many cases, the question is not of desire, it is about procedure. What is the right balance between transparency and "strategery" (eg. in order to create the best partnerships to serve the customer == citizens)? How can transparency be increased without sacrificing the time and money needed for other projects? How can we identify or create the right incentives for government to WANT to be more transparent, and not just be forced into it.
That said, I definitely see the value of using familiar terms, and of galvanizing people around a concept. But part of what transparency means is that, if government is not going to be a black box anymore, then we can't just bang on the walls. We have to go inside and help out. FWIW, I think Sunlight has done an amazing job of balancing those aspects so far, which is why I'm excited to participate!
Once we settle on goals, I'm interested to see us flesh out what each of those goals mean in terms of documentation/projects/actions, and how we define things like "transparent" and "real time" in meaningful ways.
It might also be useful to come up with some measurable metrics of our own success? Both for reference as well as for motivation.
Point of note: did you make the acronym for this list COG on purpose? :)
Jessy
--
Jessy Cowan-Sharp
w: http://nebula.nasa.gov <http://nebula.nasa.gov/>
p: http://blog.quaternio.net <http://blog.quaternio.net/>
Edwin Bender
Executive Director
National Institute on Money in State Politics
833 N Last Chance Gulch
Helena, MT 59601
edw...@statemoney.org
406 449-2480
406 457-2091 FAX
www.followthemoney.org
Twitter: @EHBender
Jake Brewer
Edwin Bender
Yes, we know these folks. Their site has accounted for more than 5 million API calls to our site. David Wolber (wol...@usfca.edu) has attended a Institute planning session and seems eager to work with all who are heading in the same direction. While their work seems to overlap, in some ways, with MAPLight and LittleSis, they are approaching the question of community from a different direction, ie academic, which has its own value.
Be worth inviting David to be part of this discussion.
Ed
I would propose an additional goal to create increase *consumption* of transparency-related information, in addition to increasing demand. This rewards release of data by showing that people will really use it, providing examples of why it is valuable, and, ultimately, leads to a virtuous cycle for release and use. At the moment, many of the data sets on data.gov <http://data.gov> <http://data.gov/> are really answers looking for a question. Let's show how the good data can be used, and guide the release of better defined and more useful data. Part of what this means is that we have to be innovators/leading thinkers about what exactly open government and transparency is useful for, besides just accountability. Sunlight Labs of course has been a huge leader here already. I think this would balance out the other goals and help to reinforce them.
> [http://publicequalsonline.pbworks.com/Goals-and-Vision] <http://publicequalsonline.pbworks.com/Goals-and-Vision%5D> - I've
www.followthemoney.org <http://www.followthemoney.org>
Twitter: @EHBender
dave
San Francisco that Ed mentioned in this thread. We have worked
extensively with the city of San Francisco, with the original goal of
providing a decent web interface to their campaign finance data.
Later, motivated by the API work at Ed's Institute on Money in State
Politics, we redesigned the system with a service-oriented
architecture and api, with a client that could bring in data from
different places. SF and CA were implemented to begin, but the idea
would be that other cities could provide a thin api layer on top of
their data, and by following our protocol take advantage of the
client software and be included in mashups. My vision is to help cash-
strapped city governments work together, and have one great web
interface that even the smallest/poorest cities could take advantage
of. I also would love to see all the data about a particular
contributor in one place, as opposed to a journalist having to search
many different databases and sites.
Our OpenCampaigns.com site is down except for a description
(opencampaigns.com) We should have the dynamic data pages up again by
end of the week.
I'd be happy to share our experiences with folks as well as our code
base. The system was built with Ruby on Rails.
Thanks,
Dave
(415) 359-4787
wol...@usfca.edu
On Feb 10, 9:26 am, Edwin Bender <edw...@statemoney.org> wrote:
> Yes, we know these folks. Their site has accounted for more than 5 million
> API calls to our site. David Wolber (wol...@usfca.edu) has attended a
> Institute planning session and seems eager to work with all who are heading
> in the same direction. While their work seems to overlap, in some ways, with
> MAPLight and LittleSis, they are approaching the question of community from
> a different direction, ie academic, which has its own value.
>
> Be worth inviting David to be part of this discussion.
>
> Ed
>
> On 2/10/10 9:58 AM, "Jake Brewer" <brewe...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > This is very interesting, Ed. Thanks for bringing our attention to them.
>
> > Do you know the folks involved with that project?
>
> > It would be great to get in touch and hear more from them about what they're
> > doing. Looks a little similar in intent to both MAPLight.org and
> > LittleSis.org. Do you have a sense for how they would relate?
>
> > On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 11:40 AM, Edwin Bender <edw...@statemoney.org> wrote:
>
> >> Re: ³pair up those within government who are interested...²
>
> >> Here¹s a link to a site that is attempting to bring together data from city
> >> and state politics.
>
> >>http://opencampaigns.com/about
>
> >> They¹ve created working relationships with San Francisco disclosure folks and
> >> use the Institute¹s APIs for a combined look.
>
> >> This is exactly the model that will not only increase the quality and
> >> quantity of information available to the public, but will help those trapped
> >> in officialdom to argue for the public¹s right to access.
>
> >> Ed
>
> >>>>>> <http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=define%3A+cog&
> >>>>>> ;aq=0&aqi=l1g1&oq=cog+definit> moving the gears of transparency!
> >>>>>> :-)
>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Ok enough of that.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Jessy thanks so much for this email. You cover a lot but I want to make
> >>>>>> sure to address one of the major points. You are correct this is not a
> >>>>>> one sided fight. We do need a balance and make sure we include the
> >>>>>> people in government who want better. This is why identifying allies in
> >>>>>> government should be a major part of this venture.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> When I was organizing a neighborhood group in Cambridge, MA one of the
> >>>>>> most powerful things I could do for frustrated citizens was to introduce
> >>>>>> them to a person in government. If someone had a problem with how the
> >>>>>> trash was collected when you introduce them to the person in charge of
> >>>>>> trash collection it makes a major difference. You now have a face and
> >>>>>> name associated with the problem and a place to go to find a solution.
> >>>>>> We need to be forging relationships with people who want government to
> >>>>>> change and the employees who want to change things but might need a
> >>>>>> little leverage to change political will.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> I think a good first step is to find a way to get people inside
> >>>>>> government who want a change out and let them meet people who will
> >>>>>> support their efforts for more transparency.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Jessy what do you think the best way to do this is? A Happy Hour? Meetup?
> >>>>>> Put them on this google group? TransparencyCamp? We can do all these
> >>>>>> things and more.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Nisha
> >>>>>>
>
> ...
>
> read more »
Nisha
This is a fantastic project. What kind of issues did you run into? Is
this just for campaign finance data or can it be adapted to other
information like expenditures and contracts?
In your experience with San Francisco was there political will to
implement this project or did you run into some issues convincing
powers that be?
Nisha
> ...
>
> read more »
David Wolber
tackling just about every issue you could imagine, and we've explored
campaign finance, expenditures, lobbyist data, and contracts data.
The biggest issues have involved:
* the datasets were a moving target in terms of format. In recent years,
SF went with NetFile input software, which has stabilized things (though
this privatization is scary in other ways).
* figuring out the complexities of the data, and realizing its not
"clean". For instance, contributors are just names generally with no
ids, and different names are used in different data records, even though
it might be the same person.
* our software is developed by students, who have the audacity to
graduate, so we have high turn over in software development.
In terms of political will, there is a natural disincentive of course
but we have strong advocates in SF for transparency, and the powers that
be have been quite supportive (Gavin Newsom's office even helped fund
student workers). I think the disincentive manifests itself more with
inaction-- not allocating enough $$ to the city IT to build quality
visualization software.
I think the biggest need is to get cities sharing transparency software
and software developers, so as each is not redoing the same work and
wasting precious dollars. Having standard filing software with Netfile
or otherwise can help, and they MIGHT also provide quality web access to
the data that all cities could share. But the privatization of this is a
bit troublesome to many.
Dave
>>>>> Re: �ｿｽpair up those within government who are interested...�ｿｽ
>>>>>
>>>>> Here�ｿｽs a link to a site that is attempting to bring together data from city
>>>>> and state politics.
>>>>>
>>>>> http://opencampaigns.com/about
>>>>>
>>>>> They�ｿｽve created working relationships with San Francisco disclosure folks and
>>>>> use the Institute�ｿｽs APIs for a combined look.
>>>>>
>>>>> This is exactly the model that will not only increase the quality and
>>>>> quantity of information available to the public, but will help those trapped
>>>>> in officialdom to argue for the public�ｿｽs right to access.
>> read more �ｿｽ
>>
--
David Wolber
Professor, University of San Francisco
wol...@usfca.edu
(415) 359 4787
Edwin Bender
etc:
Paula NOONAN is the contact.
They do charge $25 a year, but for what they offer, it's a great start...
Ed
Edwin Bender
Executive Director