Dataset of the Day: Transparency and Community

Since Obama has taken over the White House, there has been a significant emphasis on open and transparent government. Some people claim that Obama hasn’t gone far enough in opening up government information, I’ve seen drastic changes in the way the government is exposing data to the public, Such as Data.gov and Recovery.gov. There are also some serious initiatives through the tech community to develop their own tools to help government become more transparent. There are a variety of Tools available, such as the Sunlight Foundations new Transparency Corps and Stimulus Watch which are providing valuable services, and building up an open government infrastructure.

Many of these tools are used to show in depth views of particular Bills or government projects. One example of this comes from aGeoCommons community member, Joseph Hirl from Agilis Advisory, who made this map to show how members of the House voted on Bill HR 2454, American Clean Energy And Security Act of 2009.

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View full map

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We really are seeing a change in the way government information is presented to the public, and the public’s role in voicing their opinions on that information. If there are any other government transparency tools or websites out there we are forgetting, feel free to mention them in the comments.