Jerry Brito

the Transparency category

I have a chapter in the new O’Reilly book “Open Government: Collaboration, Transparency, and Participation in Practice,” which you can get from Amazon. Abstract of my contribution:

Jerry Brito calls on hackers—in the sense of brilliant programmers rather than computer criminals—to liberate government data for the masses. If the government won’t make data available and useful, it is up to technologists to do it for them.

Here’s a free 7-chapter sneak peek of the book (PDF), and here’s my chapter (PDF) titled “All Your Data Are Belong to Us: Liberating Government Data.” Check out the whole thing because there are some amazing folks in here who contributed some really remarkable pieces.

3 weeks ago
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#photo #meta #book #transparency

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Jerry Brito — Watching the Stimulus

Me on the Cato Daily Podcast discussing Stimulus Watch 2.0.

♫ Buy MP3

3 months ago

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#media #audio #stimulus watch #transparency

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Me on WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi show talking about StimulusWatch.org.

If I sound like I don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s because I specifically told the producer I couldn’t address local stimulus projects, but could talk about the transparency and accountability effort nationally and, of course, the show was all about local impact.

3 months ago

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#audio #media #radio #transparency #stimulus

NYT: Government Offers Data to Miners

Many local governments are turning over big chunks of data to programmers to create useful Web sites and apps.

3 months ago

#link #transparency #dc

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Me on Federal News Radio discussing the new features available on Stimulus Watch 2.0. Check out our new advanced search!

3 months ago
via stimuluswatch

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#audio #media #Transparency #stimulus watch

This is me on WUSA Channel 9 News last night talking about government transparency and the new StimulusWatch.org which went live today.

While the original site featured proposed stimulus projects taken from the U.S. Conference of Mayors survey, this new version contains actual stimulus spending in your neighborhood. We get our data from the official recipient reports available at Recovery.gov. We will update the data quarterly when Recovery.gov makes new data available.

You can search for contracts and grants awards by state and city, by awarding agency, or by recipient. (Keyword searching is coming soon.) When you find an award that interests you, you can vote on whether you are satisfied with it or not, add to the wiki description of the project, and join in the conversation about the award in the comments section.

Check it out, blog it, tweet it, and tell your friends!

3 months ago
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#media #Transparency #video #stimulus watch

John Wonderlich on government transparency and accountability

3 months ago
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#link #sfree #podcast #Transparency

Against faith in government

A libertarian critique of Lawrence Lessig’s argument the “naked transparency” that justifies public cynicism about politics.

4 months ago

#lawrence lessig #link #transparency #sfree

Recovery.gov verdict: half-baked

The newly released raw stimulus spending data on Recovery.gov leaves much to be desired. This is not the unprecedented transparency we were promised.

4 months ago

#Transparency #link #recovery.gov #sfree

OMB has released its new guidance to agencies on recovery fund reporting. Looks like it’s final that they will only mandate reporting two levels down from the federal government. Also, it’s not clear at all where the public and sites like StimulusWatch.org will be able to get the raw data. As this chart from the guidance shows, the recipient reporting site FederalSpending.gov will (somehow) publish the data that Recovery.gov will use for its public presentation. My questions is, Can I haz public API?

8 months ago

#transparency #recovery.gov

While we are eager to work cooperatively to improve any and all practices and procedures to promote accountability and transparency, we can only do so in an atmosphere of mutual respect.

— Spokesman for PA Gov. Ed Rendell criticizing the auditor general for not consulting the governor before telling OMB that the state is not ready to keep track of recovery spending. And by “atmosphere of mutual respect” he means “in secret, behind closed doors.”

10 months ago

#transparency #pennsylvania

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My work was profiled on All Things Considered yesterday. Take a listen.

10 months ago

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#media #transparency

Would you like to beta test OpenRegs.com?

Let me know. We’d like to have a soft-launch in a week or so and could use your help kicking its tires and getting feedback on the interface, etc. Thanks!

11 months ago
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#transparency #openregs #beta