Sunlight Foundation Update

By The Sunlight Foundation

In this month's Sunlight Foundation/ Congresspedia update we wanted to alert you to a few new tools, prizes and grants, as well as a plea to help us rate members of Congress on how useful their websites are to constituents.

 --Items--

1. New “Money in politics” section in Congresspedia profiles helps illuminate the ties that bind

2. Sunlight Foundation launches OpenCongress

3. Win a $2,000 cash prize for having the best mashup website on Congress!  

4. Rate your member of Congress' website for transparency (or self-promotion)

5. Sunlight Foundation now accepting applications from local groups for mini-grants

 

1.   New “Money in politics” section in Congresspedia profiles helps illuminate the ties that bind

Congresspedia's crack team of interns has just finished installing a new "Money in politics" section in each member of Congress profile. The section provides links to several databases at the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets site that document the campaign contributions, private travel and personal finances of members. We're also linking to a brand new database that will actually show you the former staffers of a member who turned lobbyist (and who they lobby for). What we're most proud of, however, is an innovative new live feed of data from CRP of each member's top 2006 campaign contributors. As soon as the 2008 data comes out we'll be syndicating that as well.

You can find the money-in-politics section on each member's page. Here's the listing by state:

2.   Sunlight Foundation launches OpenCongress

Congresspedia’s co-parent, the Sunlight Foundation, has just launched a new project, OpenCongress.org. The site was envisioned as an actually functional version of the Library of Congress' THOMAS legislative information website combined with what bloggers and mainstream media are saying for all kinds of Web2.0 goodness.

 The site includes:

* Official government information from Thomas, made available by GovTrack.us.

* News and blog coverage of Congress from Google News and Technorati.

* Links to profiles of each Member of Congress on Congresspedia.

* Campaign contribution information from the non-profit OpenSecrets.org.

* The Congress Gossip Blog, written by OpenCongress site editors, a blog that highlights useful news & blog reporting from around the web.

3.   Win a $2,000 cash prize for having the best mashup website on Congress!

To celebrate Sunshine Week (March 12-19th), the Sunlight Foundation is offering a $2,000 prize for the best mashup website that displays information about Congress. Websites will be judged on their creativity, their delightfulness, and how effectively they share information about Congress.

This contest was inspired by the explosion of simple mashups in the last year, and Sunlight’s commitment to using new tools to make Congress more transparent. There are many sources of raw data about Congress, but not all of them (sadly) have open APIs, so we leave it up to you to figure out how to take their data and do something fun and informative with it. Last year, Sunlight Labs mashed up a database of earmarks in the Labor and Health and Human Services Bill with Google Maps, so that people could navigate a map of the United States covered with icons representing earmarks, in the course learning more about those earmarks. We're hoping to see more of that kind of fun and informative project.

Esther Dyson , Craig Newmark and Jimmy Wales have signed up to judge the contest. Deadline is March 12th. More details are available here.

4. Rate your member of Congress' website for transparency (or self-promotion)

The Sunlight Foundation has set up a rating system for constituents to evaluate the websites of their members of Congress to determine whether they're using public funds to create tools for transparency or vehicles for self promotion. So far, citizen journalists have evaluated more than 430 congressional Web sites, determining whether members provide online information on their official acts, from their legally required disclosure forms, or make additional efforts to be transparent and accountable. When the survey is complete we will post the results on the members' Congresspedia pages as a very public report card.

We've only got 100 members left to go. Help put us over the top by taking the survey or by urging your readers to do so. Even if your members have already been evaluated, multiple ratings for every member would help us get a better picture of their efforts. Go here for more information

And thank you!

5. Sunlight Foundation now accepting applications from local groups for mini-grants on increasing citizen power.

For the second year, the Sunlight Foundation is offering grants of $1,000 to $5,000 for local groups that have creative ideas for changing the relationship between elected federal representatives and the people they represent. Successful applicants will receive the grant, consulting and strategic support, and networking opportunities. The goal is to provide that extra element that takes a project from good to great -- server space, a video camera, or access to polling data -- or provide the seed that makes a new project viable. Projects could range from citizen media, to creative use of the internet to engage citizens in watchdogging, to opening up new ways of communicating with federal lawmakers to creative mapping of lawmakers' activities.

Applications are encouraged from existing small local nonprofits and websites, offshoots of national groups, individuals, and informal groups of citizens. Details can be found here